Holiday guide

How to prepare for Passover and the seder

A guide from the preparations to the last day of the festival. Each step gives a basic level (for a beginning or liberal household) and a traditional (Orthodox) level. Kitniyot concern only Ashkenazi practice.

This guide describes common practice; details vary by community and level of observance. For practical halakhic questions, consult the rabbi of your community.

Step 1 of 7· Several weeks ahead
Preparations
Minhag
Decide where and for whom the seder will be, get a Haggadah for every guest and arrange the sale of chametz with a rabbi. Contribute to ma'ot chitim.¹
Halakhah
Gradually use up your stocks of chametz. Prepare separate Passover dishes, or find out what can be kashered.²
Basic practice
A Haggadah for everyone, a menu plan, gradually eating up bread and pasta.
Traditional practice
Sale of chametz through a rabbi, separate Passover dishes, kashering the stove and sink.
Step 2 of 7· 1–2 weeks ahead
Shopping
Halakhah
Buy matzah (for the seder ideally matzah shmurah), wine or grape juice for the four cups, food certified “kosher le-Pesach”, and the ingredients for the seder plate: a bone, eggs, horseradish or bitter lettuce, vegetables for karpas, and apples, nuts and wine for the charoset.³
MinhagAshkenazimSephardimMizrahim⁂ To verify
Ashkenazim traditionally do not buy kitniyot (rice, legumes, maize, often also peanuts and soy). Sephardim and Mizrahi Jews eat kitniyot; many, however, sort through rice three times beforehand to remove grains of cereal.⁴
Basic practice
Matzah, wine/grape juice and the ingredients for the plate; avoid leavened grain products.
Traditional practice
Only food with Passover certification, hand-baked matzot shmurah; Ashkenazim without kitniyot.
Step 3 of 7· In the days before; the search on the evening of 13 Nisan, the burning on the morning of 14 Nisan
Cleaning and removing chametz
Halakhah
Thoroughly clean the places where chametz may have got (kitchen, car, pockets, school bags). This is not a spring-cleaning of the whole home – the point is to remove chametz.
Halakhah
Bedikat chametz: in the evening after dark the home is searched by candlelight (today often with a torch). Beforehand the blessing al bi'ur chametz is said; after the search, the Aramaic formula kol chamira nullifies any chametz we do not know about. It is customary to place ten pieces of bread around beforehand so that there is something to find.^5,6
Halakhah
Bi'ur chametz: on the morning of 14 Nisan the chametz that was found is burned and the nullification (kol chamira) is said again in its full form. After that chametz is no longer eaten.⁷
Basic practice
Clear out bread and pastries, clean the kitchen, a symbolic search with the children.
Traditional practice
The search with the blessing and the bittul, burning on the morning of 14 Nisan at the set time, the Fast of the Firstborn or attending a siyum.
Step 4 of 7· Afternoon of 14 Nisan
The seder table
Minhag
On the seder plate place: zeroa (a roasted bone; vegetarians often use beetroot), beitzah (a hard-boiled and roasted egg), maror (horseradish or bitter lettuce), charoset, karpas (parsley, celery or potato) and chazeret (a further bitter herb). Beside it, three matzot under a cloth, salt water, cups and Elijah's cup.^8,9
MinhagAshkenazimSephardim⁂ To verify
The arrangement of the plate varies: Ashkenazim often follow the Ari or the Rema; Sephardim mostly the Ari. For karpas Ashkenazim often take potato or parsley, Sephardim celery or lettuce.
Basic practice
A plate with the six symbols, matzah, salt water, wine or grape juice.
Traditional practice
Arrangement according to family custom, cushions for reclining (haseibah), white garment (kittel) among Ashkenazim.
Step 5 of 7· Evening of 15 Nisan (in the diaspora also the 16th)
The Haggadah: the 15 steps of the seder
Minhag
1. Kadesh – kiddush over the first cup. 2. Urchatz – washing the hands without a blessing. 3. Karpas – a vegetable dipped in salt water. 4. Yachatz – breaking the middle matzah; the larger part is the afikoman. 5. Maggid – the telling: Ma nishtanah, the four sons, the story of the Exodus, the ten plagues, Dayenu, Rabban Gamliel on Pesach, matzah and maror, the second cup.^10,11
Minhag
6. Rachtzah – washing the hands with a blessing. 7. Motzi – the blessing ha-motzi. 8. Matzah – the blessing over the matzah and eating it. 9. Maror – the bitter herb dipped in charoset. 10. Korech – a “sandwich” of matzah and maror following Hillel.^10,12
Minhag
11. Shulchan orech – the festive dinner. 12. Tzafun – eating the afikoman. 13. Barech – grace after meals, the third cup, opening the door for Elijah. 14. Hallel – psalms of praise, the fourth cup. 15. Nirtzah – the conclusion: “Next year in Jerusalem” and songs.^10,13
Basic practice
A shorter Haggadah in your own language, the four questions, the story, matzah and maror, dinner.
Traditional practice
The full Haggadah in Hebrew, four cups while reclining to the left, the prescribed quantities (kezayit) of matzah and maror, the afikoman before midnight.
Step 6 of 7· The Shulchan orech step
Dinner
MinhagAshkenazimSephardimMizrahim
Dinner usually consists of an egg in salt water, soup and a main course. Ashkenazi tradition: gefilte fish, chicken soup with matzah balls. Sephardi and Mizrahi: dishes with rice, lamb, stuffed vegetables.¹⁴
MinhagAshkenazimSephardim
Many Ashkenazi communities do not serve whole roasted meat at the seder (a reminder of the Passover offering); some Sephardi communities do.¹⁵
Basic practice
A festive dinner without bread or leavened products.
Traditional practice
A menu made only from Passover ingredients, the afikoman as the last thing eaten.
Step 7 of 7· 16–21 Nisan (in the diaspora until the 22nd)
The remaining days of the festival
HalakhahIsraelDiaspora
The first day (in the diaspora two) and the seventh day (in the diaspora also the eighth) are days of rest from work; between them is chol ha-moed, with restrictions on work. The prohibition of chametz applies throughout. From the second evening the Omer is counted each evening.^16,17
MinhagAshkenazimMizrahim
On the seventh day the Song at the Sea (Exodus 15) is read in memory of the crossing of the Red Sea. On the last day Ashkenazi synagogues say Yizkor. On the evening after the festival Moroccan families celebrate Mimouna.¹⁸
Basic practice
No bread or leavened products until the end of the festival.
Traditional practice
Rest from work on the festival days, synagogue, counting the Omer, chametz only after it is sold back once the festival ends.