SC - list newbie/Seasonal food.

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

>Anahita asked:
>>  So i'll ask a similar question:
>>  How many people here who are not Jews mundanely or are not portraying
>>  Jews in the SCA would actually be offended by being invited to eat a
>>  Passover meal, assuming none of the religious ritual stuff was
>>  included, just the foodstuffs? (as if one could find Medieval Jewish
>  > Pesach recipes)

And Stefan responded:
>I wouldn't be offended. And if this were a personal invitation, as opposed
>to an SCA feast I would, in fact, be quite honored. However I would also
>be a bit apprehensive that I might do something insulting or rude simply
>through ignorance of the appropriate customs.

Since the Seder - the "Order" of the meal - goes along with the 
Haggadah, a book with prayers, songs, stories, etc., you'd be fairly 
well guided through the feast, just as all the Jews attending are.

There are LOTS of different kinds of Haggadahs these days besides 
more traditional ones - humanist, feminist, vegetarian, 
multi-cultural, anti-war, for social justice, for peace in the Middle 
East, etc. and many are designed around having non-Jewish 
participants, since the main points of the ritual these days are seen 
to be freedom, social justice, and peace, not something specifically 
Jewish.

So even a Jew at a friend's home might not be exactly certain what 
was going to happen - except the order of the meal will be pretty 
much the same, although the content and focus might vary.

As for doing something insulting, it would be hard, unless you 
blurted out anti-Jewish sentiments during the meal, or tried to 
convert everyone to some other religion, or pulled out a ham and 
cheese with mayo and shrimp on white bread :-)

I'm listing here, for those unfamiliar, the basic outline of a Jewish 
Passover/Pesach Seder.
Since it is a ritual feast, it is food related. I'm leaving out most 
of the religious stuff as unsuitable for this list.

There are certain required foods
* A plate with three pieces of motzah
* A plate with these 6 things on it: a roasted/boiled whole egg; a 
roasted lamb shank bone or chicken neck or bone (vegetarians 
substitute some sort of long vegetable for this); a raw horseradish 
root or leaf of some bitter green vegetable; sprigs of parsely or 
spring onion/scallion; charoseth - a mixture of dried and/or fresh 
fruit, nuts, wine, and spices (there are MANY regional and cultural 
variations); and chopped or prepared horseradish
* A cup for each person, some Kosher wine, and a cup for Elijah
* Two unlit candles and matches (or lighter)
* A bowl or small bowls of salt water or vinegar water
* A hand washing set - a bowl of water and a hand towel at its 
simplest - as the hand washing is done at the table
* Some sort of table decoration

Everything in the above list is used/eaten ritually and you are told 
when to do so in the Haggadah/ritual text. The meal is supposed to go 
from sundown to midnight or later, but most folks don't take that 
long :-)

Simplifying greatly

All the stuff below is listed in the Haggadah. The only problem i've 
ever had is when most of the text is in Hebrew, which i only 
minimally taught myself to read, and little of it is in English (or 
the local vernacular).

* Light the candles and bless the light
* Bless and drink first cup of wine
* Urchatz: Wash Hands
* Karpas: Take parsley or scallion, dip in salt water or vinegar and 
say prayer, then eat
* Break one motzah and hide half of it
* Recite "This is the Bread of Affliction..."
* Fill second cup of wine
* Recite The Four Questions: "Why is this night different from all 
other nights?"
* Recite The Four Children
* Maggid: Tell about the beginnings of the Haggadah
* Tell (read) the story of Exodus
* Raise cups of wine and say something and put cups down
* Recite the 10 Plagues, while removing 10 drops of wine from each cup
* Motzah, Moror, Pesach - raise the plate with the Motzah, the bitter 
herb, and the bone, and describe their significance
* Raise cup and sing or recite "Dayenu" - "It would have been 
enough...", put cup down
* Lift cup of wine again and recite or sing something, then...
* Bless and drink second cup of wine
* Motzi-Matzah: Break and eat some of motzah
- -----Break and eat two pieces of motzah spread with moror = horseradish
- -----Break and eat two pieces of motzah spread with moror = 
horseradish, and charoset
End of Seder Part One

Eat the meal
What is in the meal can vary from culture to culture - it never 
includes any leavened bread and most grain things are made from 
motzah. However, there are differences among the Ashkenazim 
(European, esp. Eastern), the Sephardim (orig. from Spain, driven out 
in 1492, spread from Morocco to Turkey), and the Mizrachim (Iraqi and 
Southwest Asian) as to what food is Kosher for Pesach - one culture 
may ban what another allows, such as lentils and chickpeas, which are 
ok for the Sephardim and Mizrachim, but not allowed by the Ashkenazim.

Wine may be (usually is) drunk during the meal - since it isn't part 
of the ritual it doesn't count among the listed cups in the Seder.

Begin Seder Part Two
* Recite Blessings after the Meal
* Find the Afikomen, the broken hidden piece of motzah, by the 
youngest child, or youngest participant
* Describe the roasted egg - some Seders do the egg BEFORE the meal, 
then everyone eats a bit of egg dipped in the salt water or vinegar 
as an hors d'oeuvre
* Fill cup, lift, then bless and drink third cup of wine
* Refill cups immediately
* Open the door for Elijah -- I have known people who have found 
someone homeless wandering outside and invited them in and feed them, 
because that is the tradition - you never know, it could be Elijah... 
It is also common to invite a solo individual (or several) who won't 
otherwise be able to celebrate Passover.
* Fill Elijah's cup with wine
- -----variations here - some folks pass this cup - some folks actually 
take a litte wine from this cup and add it to their own, etc.
* All stand and recite something
* Bless and drink fourth cup of wine, and say "Next year in 
Jerusalem!" or "Next year in the City of Peace!" (which is what 
Jerusalem means)
* Dance joyfully around the room - only dance on the table if it has 
been cleared and is strong enough :-) At this point people start 
singing songs they learned as kids at family Passover celebrations. 
Some Haggadahs include music and words for those without this 
experience.
The End

I hope i haven't offended anyone by posting this. I've tried to leave 
out most of the religious content. You can see why some folks have 
remarked how it would be difficult to have a Passover dinner with out 
the religious ritual part, but i think it could be done. Less 
blessing, more fressing.

OB Medieval: there are several extant illuminated Medieval Haggadahs.

Anahita