Passover Seder

The Passover Seder (English pronunciation: ˈseɪ dəɹ; in Hebrew: סֵדֶר‎ [ˈsedeʁ], meaning "order, arrangement"; and in Yiddish: "seyder") is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted on the evening of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar throughout the world. This corresponds to late March or April in the Gregorian calendar. Passover lasts for 7 days in Israel and 8 days outside of Israel (other than for adherents of Reform Judaism for whom Passover is 7 days regardless of location), with Jews outside of Israel other than Reform Jews holding two Seders (on the evening of the 15th and 16th of Nisan) and Jews in Israel and Reform Jews worldwide holding one Seder (on the 15th of Nisan).

The Seder is a ritual performed by a community or by multiple generations of a family, involving a retelling of the story of The liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. This story is in The Book of Exodus (Shemot) in The Hebrew Bible. The Seder itself is based on the Biblical verse commanding Jews to retell the story of The Exodus from Egypt: "You shall tell your child on that day, saying, 'It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'" (Exodus 13:8) Traditionally, families and friends gather in the evening to read the text of the Haggadah, an ancient work derived from the Mishnah (Pesahim 10). The Haggadah contains the narrative of the Israelite exodus from Egypt, special blessings and rituals, commentaries from the Talmud, and special Passover songs.

Seder (Bible)

A seder (plural: sedarim) is part of a biblical book in the masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible.

Sedarim in the Torah

The text of the Torah is divided into roughly 150 sedarim though sources disagree on the exact number. Differing texts record 141, 154 or 167 sedarim

The division of the Torah into sedarim is related to the Palestinian Jewish tradition of a triennial cycle for Torah reading. The Babylonian Talmud states that it was the custom of Jews in Israel to read the Torah in a three year cycle. (See also Triennial cycle.)

In other parts of the Bible

The books of Nevi'im and Ketuvim are also divided into sedarim.

Unlike the parashot (another subdivision of the biblical books in the masoretic text that is indicated by various spacing techniques), which are thematic divisions of the text, the divisions indicated by the sedarim is mostly quantitative. In Tiberian masoretic manuscripts it is noted in the margin.

Modern use

The sedarim are seldom used in modern times. The Babylonian tradition of completing the Torah in an annual cycle became the dominant tradition, and eventually the Palestinian reading cycle ceased to be used altogether. This made the sedarim liturgically obsolete.

Seder (disambiguation)

Seder (Hebrew: סדר; plural: סדרים sedarim) is a Hebrew word meaning "order" or "sequence" and may mean:

Jewish holidays

Hebrew Bible

Talmudic texts

Jewish liturgy

Jewish mysticism