Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Dairy Passover Seder?

It doesn't sound so strange to me. I was a vegetarian for over twenty-five years. While others ate geffilte fish, chicken soup, beef and poultry, I feasted on Charoset, our chopped up treat consisting of nuts, apples, cinnamon and lots of sweet red wine. I always made sure there was enough for me to enjoy throught the holiday.

The New York Times writer was trying to give the impression that a dairy seder is almost "sacrilegious," because he was raised in a family which considered the traditional "East European Ashkenaz" menu as mi'd'rayta, The Torah From Sinai. Actually the only requirements are the ritual ones, no, not kneidlach! I'm referring to three matzot, of required size, four cups of grape wine or juice, bitter herbs, generally horseraddish and/or romain lettuce, charoset and the vegetables for dipping in salt water. After that, whatever is considered a "feast," a traditional, for that family, Shabbat meal.

I certainly wasn't sinning those twent-five plus years I was a vegetarian. I felt like I was feasting, so I was.

2 comments:

RivkA with a capital A said...

I was also vegetarian for years. I never suffered for it!

Many years ago, my vegan roommate and I made a dairy/parve seder for a million of her relatives. I made 16 matza lasagnas!!

No one left hungry!!

Batya said...

Sounds yummy, but I'd gain weight from it.