The Passover Seder plate (, ke'ara) is a special plate containing symbolic foods eaten or displayed at the Passover Seder. It is used to show all the symbolic foods that are used for the Passover Seder.
Symbolic foods Each of the six items arranged on the plate has special significance to the retelling of the story of Passover—the exodus from Egypt—which is the focus of this ritual meal. A seventh symbolic item used during the meal—the three matzos—is not considered part of the seder plate proper.
The six traditional items on the Seder Plate are:
Maror and Chazeret Maror and ChazeretThus explained in Rabbi Hai Gaon's Commentary on Mishnah Uktzin 1:2 ; Sefer Arukh, s.v. חזרת; Mishnah Commentary of Rabbi Nathan, President of the Academy, s.v. Mishnah Kila'im 1:2; Zohar Amar, Flora and Fauna in Maimonides' Teachings, Kefar Darom 2015, p. 77 [Hebrew]. – Bitter herbs symbolizing the bitterness and harshness of the slavery that the Hebrews endured in Egypt. In Ashkenazi tradition, fresh romaine lettuce or endives (both representing the bitterness of the Roman invasions) or chazeret (horseradish) may be eaten as Maror in the fulfillment of the mitzvah of eating bitter herbs during the Seder. Chazeret are additional bitter herbs, usually romaine lettuce, that are used in the korech sandwich.
Charoset Charoset – A sweet, brown mixture representing the mortar and brick used by the Hebrew slaves to build the structures of Egypt. In Ashkenazi Jewish homes, Charoset is traditionally made from chopped nuts, grated apples, cinnamon, and sweet red wine.
Karpas Karpas – A vegetable parsley or other non-bitter herbs representing hope and renewal, which is dipped into salt water or vinegar at the beginning of the Seder.A Passover Haggadah: As Commented Upon by Elie Wiesel and Illustrated by Mark Podwal (Simon & Schuster, 1993, )Biggs, Julia. The Art of Food in Europe, 1500 – 1800; Bittersweet: The Passover Feast, The Fitzwilliam Museum. Accessed January 19, 2026. "As well as the items on the Seder plate, the Seder table also features a container of salt water or vinegar, four glasses of wine (consumed while reclining) and three pieces of matzah stacked and wrapped or covered in a cloth." Some substitute parsley with a slice of green onion (representing the bitterness of slavery in Egypt) or potato (representing the bitterness of the ghetto in Germany and in other European countries), both commonly used. Participants dip a simple vegetable into salt water. Water then drips off the vegetables visually representing tears and is a symbolic reminder of the pain felt by the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. Usually, in a Shabbat or holiday meal, the first thing to be eaten after the kiddush over wine is bread. At the Seder table, however, the first thing to be eaten after the kiddush is a vegetable. This leads immediately to the recital of the famous question, Ma Nishtana—"Why is this night different from all other nights?" It also symbolizes the springtime, because Jews celebrate Passover in the spring.
Zeroah Zeroa – Also transliterated Z'roa, this is typically a roasted lamb shank bone or chicken wing. It is special as it is the only element of meat on the Seder Plate, symbolizing the Korban Pesach (Passover sacrifice), or Pascal Lamb. It symbolizes the sacrifice of a lamb whose blood was painted on the doorway of Israelite slaves' houses so that the angel of death would pass over that house during the tenth plague.
Beitza Beitza – A hard-boiled egg, symbolizing the korban chagigah (festival sacrifice) that was offered at the Temple in Jerusalem, is then roasted and eaten as part of the meal on Seder night. Although both the Pesach sacrifice and the chagigah were meat offerings, the chagigah is commemorated by an egg, a symbol of mourning (as eggs are the first thing served to mourners after a funeral), evoking the idea of mourning over the destruction of the Temple and the inability to offer the biblically mandated sacrifices for the Pesach holiday. The use of an egg in the seder is first attested in the 16th-century Shulchan Aruch commentary of Rabbi Moses Isserles, and it is not known when the custom began. It is not used during the formal part of the seder. Some people eat a regular hard-boiled egg dipped in salt water or vinegar as part of the first course of the meal, or as an appetizer. The egg also represents the circle of life: birth, reproduction, and death.
Many decorative and artistic Seder plates sold in Judaica stores have pre-formed spaces for inserting the various symbolic foods.
Three The sixth symbolic item on the Seder table is a plate of three whole , which are stacked and separated from each other by cloths or napkins. The middle matzah will be broken and half of it put aside for the . The top and another half of the middle matzot will be used for the (blessing over bread), and the bottom matzah will be used for the (Hillel sandwich).
According to one common interpretation, the three matzot represent "Kohen, Levi and Yisrael" (i.e., the priests, the tribe of Levi, and all other Jewish people).
Salt water or vinegar Most Ashkenazi Jews add a bowl of salt water, which is used for the first "dipping" of the Seder but is not traditionally part of the Seder Plate but is sometimes placed beside the plate or used as one of the six items, omitting chazeret. The salt water represents the tears of the Israelites when they were enslaved.Shurpin, Yehuda. "Why Dip Karpas (Vegetable) at the Seder?", Chabad. Accessed January 19, 2026. "The common custom is to dip the vegetable into salt water (or vinegar), symbolizing the tears the Jews shed during their servitude." Sephardic and Persian Jews, as well as German Jews, include vinegar, rather than salt water, on the seder plate, and dipped karpas in the vinegar rather than in salt water.Morel, Linda. "Second-Night Seders — Serve Sephardi Symbolic Foods", The Jewish Exponent, March 23, 2022. Accessed January 19, 2026. "Variations started with the karpas, the green vegetable representing spring. While Ashkenazi Jews dip parsley in salt water to represent the tears of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, Sephardim dip celery into a bowl of vinegar to symbolize the harshness of slavery."Simnegar, Reyna. "Pesach, the Persian way", Jewish Community Voice, March 23, 2021. Accessed January 19, 2026. "Persian Seders are extraordinary, with special customs that take place throughout the Seder that will keep you on your toes. First, Persians use celery and white vinegar for the vegetable dipping."
Additional or alternative items
In modern times, several additional items have been proposed as additions to the seder plate.
One of the oldest of these proposed items, dating back to the 1980s, is the orange, which represents the fruitfulness for all Jews when marginalized Jews, particularly women and gay people, are allowed to become active and contribute to the Jewish community, as suggested by Susannah Heschel, when she spoke at Hillel at Oberlin College, and saw an early feminist haggadah that included Susan Fielding's short story about a young Jewish lesbian told by her Hasidic rebbe that "there is as much place for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for hametz at the seder table." Heschel felt, as did those women at Oberlin, that putting bread on the Seder plate would mean accepting the idea that lesbian and gay Jews are as incompatible with Judaism as chametz is with Passover. At her next Seder, she used an orange as a symbol of inclusion for lesbians, gays, and others who are marginalized by the Jewish community. Participants eat a segment of the orange, spitting out the seeds as a symbol of rejecting homophobia.Silvert, Anita. "The real story behind the orange on the seder plate", Jewish Chicago, March 22, 2012. Accessed February 12, 2026. "Have you heard about putting an orange on the Seder Plate? Even if you have, I'm sure it's not the true story of how it came to be, so to do my part to put rumors to rest, I present you here with the real story of why people put an orange on the Seder plate.... Heshchel herself tells the story of the genesis of this new ritual in the 2003 book, The Women's Passover Companion (JPL). It all started with a story from Oberlin College in the early 1980's.... So, the next year, Heschel put an orange on the family seder plate, "I chose an orange because it suggests the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life." The symbolism grew to include people who feel marginalized from the Jewish community: the widow, the orphan, women's issues in general, but solidarity with the gay and lesbian Jewish community was at the core."
In the 21st-century, some have suggested other items, such as olives (as a call for peace between Israel and Palestine), lemons (to support the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza) and fair trade chocolate or cocoa beans (linking the Exodus story to the reality of modern forced labor).
See also Jewish ceremonial art Haft-sin, a similar display for Nowruz, the Iranian new year Twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper
References
External links Chabad.org: The Seder Plate Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, The Seder Plate in Peninei Halakha