Karpas - a Roman Banquet Custom

Haggadah Section: Karpas

The first thing we eat tonight is a vegetable dipped in salt water. The vegetable, often parsley, celery, or fresh seasonal herbs, symbolizes the promise of spring. We dip the greens in salt water to remind us of the many tears the Israelites shed as slaves. Boiled potato is a popular alternative dating back to the communities in Eastern Europe, where green vegetables were hard to come by. The origin of the dipping ritual goes back to a Roman custom popular during the time the rabbis compiled the Seder. Wealthy Romans started their banquets with fresh vegetables dipped in a sauce or dressing, and so the rabbis chose to start the ceremonial meal in this way to emphasize the taste of freedom. According to Rashi, the medieval “father” of Bible commentary, there’s a connection between the pas in the word Karpas, as used in the Book of Esther to mean cotton, and the pas in the description of Joseph’s colorful coat in the Bible, which was made of Passim. Joseph’s brothers dipped his coat into goat’s blood to deceive their father, and sold him into slavery. In a way, by doing this, the brothers inadvertently sold the following generations of Israelites along with him, since Jacob would follow Joseph to Egypt to escape the famine in Canaan. Later appearances of similar-sounding words that refer to a green vegetable come up in Persian (karafs means parsley) and Greek (karpos means fruit of the soil). The two histories of the word come together at the Seder.

Source:  
http://diy-dev.archer-soft.com/node/23977/edit

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