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The Seder plate sits at the main table during the Seder dinner in the basement of Temple B'Nai Israel Saturday in Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Associate Director of Education at the Goldring/ Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, Rabbi Matthew Dreffin, holds up the Matzah (unleavened bread) during the Seder in the basement of Temple B'Nai Israel Saturday in Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Members of Temple B'Nai Israel follow along with the service, reading from The Union Haggadah during Seder. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Residents and members of Temple B'nai Israel celebrate the Seder supper. This year's Passover Seder Supper will be April 1 at Trinity Church. (file photo)

Associate Director of Education at the Goldring/ Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish LIfe, Rabbi Matthew Dreffin, talks with Dixie Lewis before the Seder in the basement of Temple B'Nai Israel Saturday in Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Judy Brady, from left, Judy Abrams, Elise Rushing and Cristina Brady prepare the Seder at Temple B'Nai Israel Saturday in Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ — The Seder plate sat at the main table during the Seder dinner in the basement of Temple B’Nai Israel Saturday in Natchez. Associate Director of Education at the Goldring/ Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, Rabbi Matthew Dreffin said everything on the plate holds meaning, nothing was chosen at random. He said the greens on the plate remind us of springtime, but we dip them in saltwater to remind us of the tears of our ancestors, and those in slavery. A bitter herb, horshradish, to remember the bitterness of slavery. Charoset symbolizes mortar Hebrew slaves used to make bricks. A lamb shank of some sort, is always represented. Symbolizing when the angel of death passed over Egypt killing the first born children except for in the homes of the Israelites who slathered their door posts with the blood of a slaughtered goat. The hardboiled egg is a symbol of spring and fertility renewal. The orange is relatively new on the Seder plate, symbolizing the reclaiming LGBTQ rights, it started representing women and it’s become much more complicated. The most important being Matzah (unleavened bread). “To remember the ancient Israelites leaving Egypt, they had very little time, they couldn’t even let their bread rise,” Rabbi Dreffin said.

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