Passover Vocabulary

Part of the ceremonial Passover plate is a dish of bitter herbs, usually parsley, which symbolizes the pain and suffering of slaves.

Divine means "godly" or "supernatural," but as a verb it means "to guess accurately" or "to discover." The forked sticks that dowsers use to find water underground are known as divining rods.

Exodus is a book in the Old Testament . It's a Greek word, meaning "going out." Because of the story of the Jewish people's escape from Egypt, it now carries a specific connotation: a large number of people running from a dangerous situation.

Kasher is a Hebrew word meaning "fit," as in "fit to eat." The dietary laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy list foods that may not be eaten, such as pork and shellfish, and specific rules for the slaughter of animals. The Muslim dietary laws, known as halal, are very similar.

Leaven comes from levare, which is Latin for "to lift." Yeast produces carbon dioxide, which causes bread to rise. Leavened bread is forbidden during Passover as a way of remembering that the ancient Jews did not have time for their bread to rise before they fled from Egypt. That's why only matzo, an unleavened cracker, is eaten in observant households during the holiday.

Charoset is a spread made from fruit and nuts. It's meant to resemble mortar which is used to build stone walls. It comes from the Hebrew word cheres, which means "clay."

According to the Torah — the first five books of the Bible, also known as the pentateuch — God visited ten plagues upon the Egyptians to force them to let the Jews go free. Today plague is used to refer to disease, mostly the bubonic plague that devastated the world in the fourteenth century, but the Latin word plaga means "wound" or "affliction," with the specific connotation that the suffering is of divine origin, with the purpose of punishment.

The Passover meal, because it is a celebration, calls for several glasses of wine to be drunk throughout the meal, with a prayer accompanying each one. Tradition also dictates that an additional glass be poured, and left on the table, for Elijah the prophet. A door is usually opened to symbolically let him in to the room. Prophitis is Ancient Greek, meaning "interpreter" or "proclaimer," with the specific implication that the prophet is speaking for a deity.

According to the story, after the exodus from Egypt, the Jews wandered in the desert for forty years before arriving in the promised land.

Yeast is a type of fungus, and is essential to making wine and bread. Foods with yeast specifically leavened bread, are forbidden during the Passover holiday.