The following is an excerpt from the 2018 James Beard Book of the Year “The Cooking Gene” by Michael Twitty, an acclaimed Jewish, African-American, gay culinary historian who speaks to the intersections of identity, food, culture, and social justice. Excerpt, “The Cooking Gene,” by Michael W. Twitty, pp. 70-73 I think there is still a lingering sentiment in the culture that sees Jewish food as a mass of things that go on rye bread; cannot possibly be pronounced without gagging or...

Uncover and hold up the three pieces of matzah and everyone say together: All Together: “This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat; let all who are needy come and celebrate the Passover with us. Now we are here; next year may we be in the Land of Israel. Now we are slaves; next year may we be free.”

There are three pieces of matzah stacked on the table. We now break the middle matzah into two pieces. We'll wrap up the larger of the pieces and hide it before the end of dinner. This piece is called the afikomen, literally “dessert” in Greek. After dinner, the children will get to find for the afikomen! We eat matzah in memory of the quick flight of our ancestors from Egypt. As slaves, they had faced many false starts before finally being...

One of most beloved songs in the Passover Seder is "Dayeinu". Dayeinu commemorates a long list of miraculous things God did, any one of which would have been pretty amazing just by itself. For example, “Had God only taken us out of Egypt but not punished the Egyptians – it would have been enough.” Dayeinu, translated liberally, means, “Thank you, God, for overdoing it.” Dayeinu is a reminder to never forget all the miracles in our lives. When we stand and...

The blessing over the meal is immediately followed by another blessing over the wine: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree hagafen. We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who creates the fruit of the vine. Drink the third glass of wine!

Prepare sandwich of matza, maror, and charoset. This recalls for us what Hillel did when the Temple existed: He enwrapped the Paschal lamb, the matzo and the bitter herbs to eat them as one, in fulfillment of the Torah verse, "with matzot and maror they shall eat it. (Numbers 9:11). It also reminds us that life is an integration of the bitter and the sweet.

In Talmud Tractate Megillah 10b we are told, as the Jews are singing praises to God for drowning the Egyptians, the angels wish to sing as well. God quiets the angels, saying, “The works of my hands are drowning in the sea, and you wish to sing praises?!” As we rejoice at our deliverance from slavery, we acknowledge that our freedom was hard-earned. We regret that our freedom came at the cost of the Egyptians’ suffering, for we are all human...