On Christian Passover Seder

Hi All,

Incidentally the meaning of the word seder is order , so it’s akin to an order of service , like you have in Anglican church. In which there are several versions of the book of common prayer. I doubt you’d have a whole page dedicated to prayers for britain, parliament and the royal family in an American Anglican service book.

There’s more modern liturgy books not in Shakespearean language , so too are there multiple versions of the Passover Seder; even the symbolic food vary from Ashkenazi to Sephardic households and whether rice and beans can be eaten . Plus there’s sometimes different traditions within communities. Moroccan Seder have traditional things that would be different to an Ashkenazi Seder (e.g. at the start , the Seder plate is held over each guest and a blessing said , the recitation of the ten plagues is done differently).

I”d suggest that Jesus did do a Seder, there was bread, wine and a meal after all, but maybe it was from an oral tradition (they got written down after the destruction of the Temple) or a different, but close version. But then this wasn’t the point was it ? Reading the gospels , Jesus tells his disciples that the bread and wine are his body and blood, thus changing the dynamic of whatever of Seder was to him and them. But clearly it wasn’t, for Christians, going to be a festival recalling the exodus from Egypt. Instead it becomes the mass/ holy communion/ lords supper in a public place of worship .

Passover Seder are- as with a lot of Judaism – traditionally done within the home, rather than “public ” acts in the synagogue and the thing is Christian Seder aren’t going to be anything like Jewish ones because the focus and emphasis is shifted from the God/Jewish people/ exodus story to Jesus and his death / resurrection etc . So I’m not objectionable, just more baffled at the intent of a Christian Passover Seder.

I think if Christians want to celebrate or understand Passover in the original context or an ecumenical context , they’re better off actually being invited to a Passover Seder in a Jewish home. As my partner is Ashkenazi and I’m Sephardi, we do different Seders on the first and second day of Passover.