My Family's Apple Harosets Recipe & What Passover Is Really About (2024)

FAQs

What is a harrow set for Passover? ›

Place apples and walnuts into a large bowl. Mix cinnamon and sugar together; sprinkle over apple mixture. Stir in honey and sweet wine. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until serving.

The actual Seder meal is also quite variable. Traditions among Ashkenazi Jews generally include gefilte fish (poached fish dumplings), matzo ball soup, brisket or roast chicken, potato kugel (somewhat like a casserole) and tzimmes, a stew of carrots and prunes, sometimes including potatoes or sweet potatoes.

This very classic Ashkenazi haroseth, which is a ceremonial part of the Passover Seder, is made from diced apple, toasted walnuts, a touch of cinnamon and a shower of sweet Passover wine. It's meant to represent the mortar used by the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt.

One of the favourite flavours of seder night, the home ritual that begins the holiday, is charoset, the brown mixture that sits on the seder plate and which symbolises the mortar the Israelites used to build storehouses for Pharaoh.

A harrow is a farm implement used to level and smooth soil, break up clumps, and control weed growth. It can be pulled by a tractor and is often used in conjunction with plowing and tilling to prepare fields for planting crops.

The first is for Kiddush (קידוש), the second is for 'Maggid' (מגיד), the third is for Birkat Hamazon (ברכת המזון) and the fourth is for Hallel (הלל). The Four Cups represent the four expressions of deliverance promised by God Exodus 6:6–7: "I will bring out," "I will deliver," "I will redeem," and "I will take."

The tradition goes back to the 13th century, when custom dictated a prohibition against wheat, barley, oats, rice, rye and spelt, Rabbi Amy Levin said on NPR in 2016.

Whether you spell it matzo or matzah, no Passover meal is complete without the brittle unleavened bread. You'll inevitably have plenty leftover, so use it to make matzo brei, matzo granola, or matzo toffee.

During Passover, Ashkenazi Jews traditionally stay away from not only leavened foods like bread, namely barley, oats, rye, spelt, and wheat, but also legumes, rice, seeds, and corn. The ban has been in place since the 13th century, but it's always been controversial.

Charoset is one of the symbolic foods on the Passover Seder Plate. After reciting the blessings, and eating first maror dipped in charoset and then a matzah "Hillel sandwich" (with two matzot) combining charoset and maror, people often eat the remainder spread on matzah.

Why do Jews eat horseradish? ›

By “suffering” symbolically through the consumption of horseradish, we remember the bitterness of our slavery and recall the joy of our redemption.

Haroset is meant to resemble the mortar that ancient Israelites used to build the pyramids in Egypt. Haroset's sweetness also offers a much-needed needed counterpart to another seder food: a bitter herb (often horseradish) meant to represent the bitterness of slavery.

It is a symbol of beauty, sweetness and the hope for prosperity, and the hardiness of the fruit and its durability represents strength and growth. At Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, Jewish people dip apples into honey to symbolise their hopes for a sweet year ahead.

Haroset (sweet fruit paste symbolizing mortar)

Ashkenazi Jews generally include apples in haroset, a nod to the midrashic tradition that the Israelite women would go into the fields and seduce their husbands under the apple trees, in defiance of the Egyptian attempts to prevent reproduction by separating men and women.

In the days leading up to Passover, families across the world gather in their homes for a ceremonial meal known as a Seder. No matter what dishes are served, eggs always have a space on the table as powerful symbols of hope, sacrifice, and rebirth.

harrow, farm implement used to pulverize soil, break up crop residues, uproot weeds, and cover seed. In Neolithic times, soil was harrowed, or cultivated, with tree branches; shaped wooden harrows were used by the Egyptians and other ancient peoples, and the Romans made harrows with iron teeth.

Our precision tine harrow keeps the preset pressure constant in every tine position – even with potato ridges. This means you benefit from effective work through precise tine guidance, allowing you to remove weeds laying dorment as early as the germination and cotyledon stage.

Harrowing removes dead thatch lifts vegetation up and levels any mole hills. Its job is to allow air movement and root aeration which helps the soil to breathe and improves water infiltration. It reduces disease by exposing fungi and bacteria to sunlight which is essential for the health of the pasture.