HIGH HOLIDAY…SEDERS? by Emily Moore appearing the JT News

The High Holidays. We know them well, right? They are the time for us to go to synagogue with the yearly desire to understand ourselves and our behavior, to set right our misdeeds before God and with our community, to resolve to do better, to hope the slate may be wiped clean. A time to see everyone we may not have seen all year, a time to deeply contemplate the meaning of tzedaka, to shed tears over loved ones passed, to commiserate with kids squirming in their seats and a time to just make it through the fast one more year. But seders, full of ritual foods and discussions of the meanings of the holiday and wonderful smells and tastes-- for Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur?

This year in Seattle, Panim Hadashot, a wonderful new organization dedicated to bringing greater personal meaning to Jewish rituals and traditions through the (very Jewish) path of discussions, small Shabbat gatherings, and feasts, is holding unique seders for both erev Rosh Hashonah and the meal before the fast on Yom Kippur. Founded and led by Rabbi Dov Gartenberg, Panim Hadashot (whose chosen descriptor is "New Faces of Judaism") will gather the community in the beautiful dining hall of Bastyr University for pareve ritual meals that it hopes will begin new traditions during the Days of Awe.

But although Panim Hadashot is bringing what certainly seems to be a new concept to life in this season of ancient teachings and known rituals, the idea of a seder for Rosh Hashonah, at least, is not new. The Gemarra, in tractate Kersius declares: "At the beginning of each year a person should accustom him (her) self to eating gourds, leeks, fenugreek, beets and dates", all of which represent good "omens" or have positive connotations. One interpretation of why the authors of the Gemarra admonish us to eat these helpful foods is the idea that ingesting them will remind us that merely eating the "good" will not be enough for us to be seen as truly good on this Judgement Day: We also have to search our own hearts for goodness and repent the bad deeds we have indulged in. Another view indicates that by eating what represents goodness we are asking to be remembered for a good year internally and not by overtly petitioning in our own favor.

Blessings and "Yehi ratzon" ("May it be Your will…") prayers are said for each of the foods stated in the Gemarra, and for a few others that have attracted Rosh Hashonah significance over the centuries: Challas with round or other descriptive shapes, apples and honey, pomegranates, fish and the head of a sheep or a fish.

How these particular foods became honored with places in the ritual focus of Rosh Hashonah lies with the ancient practice of matching the name of a thing with a concept whose name has a similar sound. For example, the Hebrew name for leek is karti which is chosen because it sounds like karet, to cut, to cut out or to destroy. So, the concept and the prayer related to leeks might be "Yehi ratzon, may it be Your will to destroy my adversaries" or "Yehi ratzon, may You help me in destroying my will to do (a) bad deed" or "Yehi ratzon, may you help me by cutting out my will to yell at my kids", or whatever "Yehi ratzon" is most appropriate for you in your life. Of course, the leader of the seder will chose a meaning (s)he feels is most appropriate, but this seder tradition leaves much room for individuals to bring their own intimacies to the prayer that the food/concept brings up.

An interesting side note about these food names/idea names is that because this referencing practice is ancient and most Jews have moved away from the Middle East where these particular edibles are common, other foods are also referenced as having the same name as the original ones mentioned in the Gemarra. "Rubiyah", the Hebrew name for fenugreek, also comes up as the name for beans and black-eyed peas, two foods that were probably common in different areas where fenugreek was either hard to get or unknown. The sounds-like concept word for "rubiyah" is "yirbu", to increase. So, while some seders direct you to eat black-eyed peas for the prayer "Yehi ratzon, may it be Your will to increase my virtues", in others (Panim Hadashot’s, for example) you will be eating leek fritters for the same prayer concept. And while the word "k’ra", phonetically related to the word for "proclaim/read" or "to tear", was known to the ancients as meaning gourd, "k’ra" is also found to mean red lentils. So, although the Panim Hadashot seder will serve a savory pumpkin-filled pastry to be eaten accompanying the prayer entreating: "May it be Your will that our merits be proclaimed before you" or "…that the decree of our sentence be torn up", you might find the same prayer has you are eating a lovely red lentil stew in another place, another year.

That lentil stew will not be spicy, however; the general ideas for foods to be eaten for the High Holidays consider that nothing sour or overly spicy should be consumed so that we can better concentrate on hoping internally for a "good, sweet year" by eating (of course) apples with honey, honey cake and any fabulous traditional family sweets. The lore that has developed for honey cake is well-known: Ask a friend to give you a piece of the cake on Rosh Hashonah and you will not have to ask them for anything else all year. Or, if it has been declared in heaven that a person is to become a beggar, through this request for food the decree has been fulfilled and it therefore can be annulled. Traditions about eating pomegranates on the New Year abound, but one of the most enriching is the notion that there are 613 mitzvot and there are also exactly the same number of seeds in a pomegranate, making the fruit the embodiment of good deeds. Fish are eaten because they are so numerous that consuming them will promote a prosperous year. The head of a sheep (yes, really eaten in many Jewish cultures over the ages) represents the ram that was sacrificed by Abraham when God released him from having to give up Issac. Eating any "head", sheep, fish or, for beef, maybe just the tongue, also promotes the idea of being at the "head" in the world and not at the "tail". Challas for the holidays may be studded with dried fruits for sweetness and shaped into rounds for the cycle of the year, or formed into ladders, suggesting Jacob’s ladder (where again we want to be at the top!)

What about a seder for Yom Kippur when we know we will be fasting for twenty-five hours? On the day before Yom Kippur it is as much a mitzvah to eat twice as much as usual as it is to fast for the Day of Attonement! So, clearly a "Feast before the Fast" must first of all live up to its title so that worshipers will have the strength and stamina to get through the rigors of the following holy day. Practical suggestions are that salty foods be avoided to inhibit thirst and foods that produce heat in the body, like garlic, spices and (?) eggs also be left out. But what will be the substance of a ritual meal that must also prepare the mind, the heart and the soul for the holiest and most difficult day of the year? Although Rosh Hashonah seders have been celebrated over the Jewish millennia, and indeed Panim Hadashot had its first last year, a Yom Kippur Feast before the Fast is a new creation. Rabbi Gartenberg has divided the seder into seven parts, each relating one of the central themes of the holiday to a symbolic food that expresses and expands the meaning of the concept, in keeping with referenced lore and literature from Yom Kippur texts.

The first part, called "Chet: The Acknowledgement of Sin", references red as the color of sin (for the red string tied around to neck of the goat sent out into the wilderness carrying the sins of the Children of Israel), and the food eaten will be a salad of roasted tomatoes, sweet red peppers and beets. The second section, "Teshuvah: Turning to Repentance: Revealing the Truth" brings foods that must be opened up to reveal a hidden truth, the peeling away of artichoke leaves to find the heart, the discovering of a sweet/savory filling in a kreplach (also a carb—highly recommended for stamina!) "Tefilah: The Self-Reflection of Prayer" begins with the ephemeral and a whiff of rose water, then we accompany a contemplation Jonah’s relationship with God and the gourd vine that Jonah loves so much with the crunch of toasted pumpkin seeds.

"Tzedakah: The Act of Righteousness" takes us to the definition of righteous acts in Leviticus where we are directed to leave the "small grapes" (unripe bunches) on the vine during harvest so the poor may collect them; we eat tiny, sweet grapes as we reflect on our own acts of tzedakah. In "Kapparah: Attonement" the goat who "carries away" our sins comes up again and in reflection we eat fresh, white goat cheese in pure, fragrant olive oil. "Purity: Taharah" is accomplished with the ritual washing of hands and brings us to "Mahzor: The Cycle of the Year" when we dip pieces of round challa in honey and wish all at the seder "L’Shana Tova!" And then comes the meal!

To get more information on the Panim Hadashot High Holiday seders and to receive registration forms, call Cynthia at Panim Hadashot, (877) 643-7274