Passover 2025
Your Ultimate Passover Checklist
Each year, Passover begins on the 15th of Nisan –always on the full moon. This year, Passover begins at sunset on Saturday, April 12 and ends on Sunday, April 20 at nightfall. Depending on your custom or location (whether you are in Israel or in the diaspora), you might end Passover at nightfall on Saturday, April 19.
SEDER ESSENTIALS:
Enough wine or grape juice for four cups per person. A cup is also set out for Elijah, the Prophet. While many stick with the same beverage for the whole Seder, you might think about how your drink progresses with the meal to demarcate freedom (or just to pair with the food!).
Matzah, unleavened bread, symbolizes the quickly-prepared sustenance the Israelites brought when they fled Egypt. Each person should have three pieces of matzah or there should be a central plate with three pieces of matzah
Haggadah (the telling) guides you through the Seder steps and the story. Make your own at Haggadot.com!
A cup or bowl of salt water to dip karpas (parsley or green vegetables).
Two candles to welcome in the holiday.
ON THE SEDER PLATE:
Karpas: parsley or green vegetables representing spring.
Baytza: an egg representing fertility & renewal.
Maror: bitter herbs (horseradish, romaine lettuce, endive, etc.) represent the bitterness of slavery.
Z’roa: a roasted shank bone or a beet, representing the pascal sacrifice made at the Temple in Ancient Israel.
Charoset: a mixture of fruits & nuts, representing mortar used in the work of the Israelite slaves.
Hazeret: another form of bitter herbs.
SYMBOLIC SEDER PLATE ADDITION
An orange symbolizing LGBTQIA+ equality.
A banana symbolizing support for refugees.
An acorn acknowledging indigenous land.
Cocoa or coffee beans acknowledging forced labor that still happens around the world.
An olive symbolizing hope for peace between Israel and Palestine.
OTHER SYMBOLIC TABLE ADDITION
An empty chair and place setting for hostages still in captivity in Gaza.
Miriam’s Cup, a cup of water to honor women.
Ma Nishtanah 5785
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QUESTIONS FOR PASSOVER THIS YEAR
On Passover, we ask four questions to understand what makes Passover and the nights of the Seder unique from the rest of the year. Traditionally, the youngest person in attendance is given the honor of asking the questions Consider asking your table who is the “youngest” at different things for example, who has lived in your city for the shortest amount of time? Here are four reframed question topics for your table.
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We eat matzah during Passover because it's what the Israelites ate while fleeing slavery in Egypt. We are reminded that even at their most desperate, our ancestors had sustenance. This sustenance and the prospect of their freedom were enough to keep them going. Matzah should remind us of what is foundational to our lives and what is superfluous, a call to return to that which sustains us How might you commit to going back to basics this year? What feels foundational to your ongoing spiritual, physical, and intellectual sustenance?
We eat bitter herbs as a symbol of the bitterness of slavery So often we are pulled to gloss over that which is painful it’s too hard to acknowledge, it's too divisive to talk about. The bitter herbs remind us that we cannot look away from the hard stuff. What painful things in your own life or in our world do you want to acknowledge? How do you want to acknowledge them?
We dip twice during the Seder: first the parsley into the salt water, then the bitter herbs into the charoset. When we dip the bitter herbs into the charoset, the sweetness softens, though does not fully mask, the bitterness of the herbs. What acts as charoset in your life? Where do you find sweetness that makes the hard things a little easier to handle?
According to the ancient rabbis, we recline during the Seder because that’s what free people do. Yet, we know that not everyone in this world is free. How do you use your freedom to advocate for others? There are also ways in which we, who consider ourselves free, may feel enslaved, whether it’s by our tether to social media, our own mental health, a tendency towards overworking, or something else. In what ways are you still enslaved, and how can you reach for freedom?