At the Seder, there is at least one Seder plate, ke'ara, which contains various food items (see below), most of whom are to be eaten at the Seder. The idea of the Seder plate is that a person has in front of him/ her all the food needed to fulfill the obligations of the night. While one would think that each adult at the table should have a Seder plate (Talmud Pesachim 115b, Rav Shimi bar Ashi), I think the common practice is for there to be only one Seder plate by the "head" of the family (or by each head of the family if there are several families celebrating the Seder together), and everybody else takes the needed items from a pile/ bowl on the table, see Tur, 473 and Mishnah Berurah 473:17.
The source for the Seder plate is the Mishnah in Pesachim 10:3. The Mishnah records that chazeret is brought before the person, and then afterwards, matzah, chazeret, charoset and two cooked dishes are brought before the person. Counting the chazeret twice and not the matzah then according to the Mishnah five items are brought before the person (see table below). In addition, the Mishnah records this bringing after it has discussed the blessing on the wine (Pesachim 10:2), which suggests that the Seder plate is to be brought after the first cup of wine has been drunk. The Ramban (Laws of hametz and matzah 8:1) and the Shulchan Arukh (Orah Chayyim, 473:1-4), follow this order, but my impression is that today people have the Seder plate on the table before the first cup of wine is drunk.
Overtime there have been several changes regarding the items in the Seder plate. One change is with regard to the chazeret. While today in modern Hebrew chazeret is horseradish, in the Mishnah it means lettuce, and this lettuce was eaten for the maror, which is why the Mishnah did not list that one brings maror to the table, see below our discussion on “Maror.”
(
http://lobashamayim.blogspot.co.il/2009/04/maror.html).
Furthermore, from the fact that chazeret is listed twice in the Mishnah, we see that in the times of the Mishnah the lettuce was eaten twice, in the beginning of the meal, hors d'oeuvres before the meal, and then again by the maror. This eating of vegetables before the meal is now called karpas and today people eat different vegetables for karpas and maror. Accordingly, the Shulchan Arukh 473:4 changed the two references to chazeret in the Mishnah to maror and karpas.
Another development is regarding the two cooked foods in the Mishnah. (It should be noted that in many versions of the Mishnah, these two items are not included in the Mishnah.) The Talmud (Pesachim 114b) asks what are the two cooked items? The Talmud quotes Rav Huna (second half of 3rd century) that they are beets and rice, Hezekiah (first half of 3rd century) that they are fish and eggs, Rav Yosef (beginning of 4th century) that they are two types of meat, one to remember the korban pesach and one to remember the korban chagigah, and Ravina (beginning of 5th century) says that even a bone and its broth is sufficient. Most likely, for the first three opinions, excluding Ravina, who lived after the three other sages, the two foods were to be eaten and were not placed on the table for ceremonial reasons. The only question would be whether the foods were to be eaten as the hors d'oeuvres with the karpas or as part of the main course. (Safrai and Safrai, 1998, p. 23 footnote 22 quote from Avigdor Aptowitzer, 1871-1942, that the usual practice in the times of the Mishnah and the Talmud was to have three appetizers as the hors d'oeuvres.)
At some point (by the end of the Talmudic period, according to Ravina’s opinion?) people stopped eating the two cooked foods at the Seder presumably because they were labeled as being a remembrance for the korban pesach and for the korban chagigah. This designation led to a fear that people would actually believe that they were having sacrificial meat. For example, the Talmud (Pesachim 53a) records that Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav that one cannot state that a piece of meat is for the pesach since it might be construed as declaring the meat as sacrificial meat. Similarly, the Talmud (Pesachim 115b, see also Shulchan Arukh 473:6 and Mishnah Berurah 473:72) quotes Rava that when saying the statement of Rabban Gamliel concerning pesach, matzah and maror, we raise the matzah and the maror but we do not raise the meat since it would look like one is eating sacrificial meat that was not offered on the altar.
This fear that somebody would think that the meat at the table is sacrificial meat is difficult to understand today, especially since the meat on the Seder plate is usually just a bone. However, after the destruction of the Bet ha-Mikdash and continuing for approximately a thousand years, the Jews who resided in Israel would take a baby goat, roast it whole and eat in by the Seder, see Mishnah Betzah 2:7 and Safrai and Safrai, 1998, pp. 26-30. They called it the pesach, and it was essentially identical to the korban pesach that was offered in the Bet ha-Mikdash. Thus, we can understand the fear that people would think the meat at the Seder was sacrificial meat because for some Jews it was practically the same thing.
Around the year 1000, there was a new development with regard to the two cooked foods. Tosafot and Rashbam (Pesachim 114b, shenei) quote Rabbenu Hananel who suggested that the meat in the Seder plate that was to remember the korban pesach should be roasted, while the meat that was to recall the korban chagigah was to be cooked.
(Why was Rabbenu Hananel not worried that by roasting this meat this would increase the chance that people would consider the meat as being sacrificial meat or eat roasted meat? Maybe, by the year 1000 people were no longer eating the meat of the Seder plate and the custom from Israel had been almost completely erased, so this was no longer a great fear. Or, maybe the opposite, even by the year 1000, people were still eating the meat of the Seder plate, and Rabbenu Hananel was following the custom from Israel. However, he knew that there was great opposition to it, so the most he could propose was to eat some roasted meat but not a whole baby goat. Curiously, Rabbenu Hananel's family was from Rome, and the Tosefta Yom Tov 2:15 and the Talmud Pesachim 53a note that a person from Rome, Tudos, also followed this practice, but there was maybe 800-900 years between the Tudos and Rabbenu Hananel.)
The Shulchan Arukh, 473:4, accepted Rabbenu Hananel's opinion, but Tosafot who quoted Rabbenu Hananel disagreed with his view concerning the second meat dish on the Seder plate, which was to recall the korban chagigah. Tosafot noted that even this korban was roasted, and hence the food item in the Seder plate that recalls the korban chagigah can be roasted. (In our printed Tosafot, it only records the option of cooking both items, but the point of Tosafot is to roast both items. Haghot Maimonides, Laws of hametz and matzah, 8:1:2, quotes Tosafot as stating that one can roast both items, and the Bet Yosef, 473, quotes the Haghot Maimonides in this way as well.)
In the comments in parenthesis to the Shulchan Arukh (which I believe is usually accredited incorrectly to the Rama), 473:4, it states that Tosafot's opinion to roast both items that are to recall the korban pesach and korban chagigah was the accepted practice in the author's town.
The Bach (1561-1640, on the Tur 473, rabenu ve-nahagu be-basar) quotes that the Maharshal (1510-1573) did not approve of this custom of roasting both items because then one does not eat them at the Seder since one does not eat roasted meat at the Seder (see Mishnah Berurah 476:1), and according to the Talmud one is supposed to eat both of them, so he (the Maharshal) cooked and ate both of them. The Bach writes that he also followed this practice, but the Chayyei Adam (1748-1820, 130:6, quoted by the Mishnah Berurah 473:32) notes that most people throw out the two cooked/ roasted foods from the Seder plate, which he thinks is terrible. He suggests that they be eaten on the following day, but my impression is that most people throw them out. (The Mishnah Berurah 473:32, 476:11?, and the Arukh Hashulchan 476:4 write that the egg, see below, can be eaten at the Seder even if roasted, but this practice does not seem to be accepted.)
Another development in the Middle Ages is that there began a specific custom as to what are the two cooked/ roasted items. The Rambam (1135-1204, Laws of hametz and matzah 8:1) does not define what are two items, and he also does not record that they are to be roasted. However, the Tur (14th century, 473) writes that the custom was to have meat and an egg for the two types of meat. Furthermore, the Tur suggests that the meat should be a bone from the "arm" zeroah, a shank bone (between the knee joint and leg of the animal), because of the phrase zeroah netuyah, which is used to describe the Exodus from Egypt, see Shemot 6:6.
In addition, the preferred zeroah is from a lamb which is to match the korban pesach, but this is not always easy to procure (Arukh Hashulchan, 1829-1908, 447:3) so then people take any bone for the "zeroah." Other people (Chabad?) believe that this connection is too great with the korban pesach since it could lead to the problem of thinking that one can have sacrificial meat outside the Bet ha-Mikdash so they use a chicken bone. My wife, Yonina, thinks that most Israelis today use chicken bones for the zeroah, possibly since it is cheaper, though we try to get a shank bone from a lamb, and eat it the following day.
The Darkei Moshe (16th century, 473:8) quotes a criticism of this practice of putting a bone on the Seder plate from the Ran (1320-1376), who notes that if one just puts a bone on the Seder plate, then one has not fulfilled the ideas of the Mishnah to have two cooked foods, and hence he writes that there should be some meat on the bone, see Mishnah Berurah 473:27. My understanding is that by the time of the Tur, the two cooked items had become ceremonial. Thus, people did not want to throw away "valuable" food, so they adopted the use of a bone as one of the cooked items.
The second item mentioned by the Tur for one of the two cooked items on the Seder plate is the egg. The Maggid Mishnah (14th century, Spain, on Rambam’s Laws of hametz and matzah 8:1) notes that the custom is his time was to use an egg, and this remains the standard custom. The Haghot Maimonides (13th century, on Rambam, Laws of hametz and matzah 8:1:2, also see Bach on Tur 473, rabenu ve-nahagu be-basar) even notes a problem with using an egg by the Seder plate that according to Rav Yosef's opinion in the Talmud, the two cooked items were to be meat, but an egg is not considered as meat since it can be eaten with milk.
How did the egg get to the Seder plate? The Bet Yosef (473, katev ha-kalbo and ve-katev od) quotes three reasons for the egg from the Kal Bo. One, that the egg is used since its name in Aramaic, be'ah, can also mean to pray. Henshke (2016, p. 338, footnote 654) doubts this idea is the source of the use of the egg, as he writes that it sounds like an ex post reason to explain the use of the egg. A second reason from the Kal Bo is because the egg is associated with mourning and then the egg by the Seder plate is a sign of mourning for the destruction of the Bet Ha-Mikdash. The Rama (477:2) in reference to the custom to eating eggs by the beginning of the meal (see our discussion below on “Eating eggs by the beginning of the meal”), adds to this idea by noting that the first day of Pesach is always the same day in the week as Tisha B’av. I doubt this reason since the Seder is a celebration of happiness about being redeemed and this idea of mourning contradicts the theme of the Seder. The third reason in the Kal Bo is a practical one that eggs are easy to cook. This reason is possible for those people who cook the egg, but the prevalent custom amongst Ashkenazim was/ is to roast the egg, and it is not easy to roast the egg.
My guess is that the development of the egg is because, as mentioned above, Ashkenazim in the Middle Ages began to desire to roast the food that symbolized the korban chagigah and also accepted the opinion of Ravina that the two foods on the Seder plate was the bone and the broth (see Bach on Tur 473, ehad zecher le-pesach). Yet how can one roast broth? The roasting would obliterate the broth. Thus, a new food was needed to replace the broth.
Why the egg? Could it be because Hezekiah in the Talmud mentioned eggs as one of the two foods in the Talmud? I doubt this since his opinion had been neglected for almost a thousand years by the time the egg was adopted, and also according to the Rashbam’s explanation of Hezekiah’s opinion (Pesachim 114b) the egg was used as a coating for the fish and was not a whole egg that we put on the Seder plate. Instead, my guess for the use of the egg was because in pre-refrigerator times, eggs were considered a special food around the time of Pesach.
Freidberg (2008, pp. 406, 407) writes, "These days few people realize that the egg was once a seasonal crop. Acutely sensitive to changes in daylight and temperature, hens (at least those in the world’s non-tropical zones) laid most of their eggs during the springtime. Egg quality as well as quantity dropped off in the summer as hens rested and molted…. The reappearance of eggs in a hen’s nest signaled as “surely as buds swelling on trees” that winter would soon end… Eggs were also “sweeter” and far more abundant than they would be at any other time of the year."
Thus, in Western Europe, where the egg was adopted to the Seder plate, around the time of Pesach, the eggs were a sign of spring, were relatively cheap and were special since they were “sweeter” and like a new food. All of these factors might have contributed to the egg being chosen to replace the broth on the Seder plate in the early Middle Ages.
With all of these developments from the time of the Mishnah, the Shulchan Arukh (16th century, 573:4) records that the Seder plate should have three matzot, maror, charoset, karpas, and two cooked items, which he notes that according to custom are a shank bone and an egg. If we exclude the matzah, the Seder plate has five items, maror, charoset, karpas, a shank bone and an egg, which corresponds to the five items mentioned in the Mishnah. Note that according to the Shulchan Arukh, the matzot are part of the Seder plate, but I think that most people put them on the table separately, while some people have them below the Seder plate.
In the parentheses on the Shulchan Arukh, which is usually ascribed to the Rama, there is a sixth item, salt water or vinegar, which is used to dip the karpas, see our discussion below, "Dipping the karpas." If this is added to the Seder plate, then there are six items on the plate, not counting the matzah.
The Shulchan Arukh (and the Mishnah) did not specify the order of the items on the Seder plate, but the Rama (473:4, based on the Maharil, Germany 1365-1427) explains that the items should be placed so that a person does not have to pass over any other item. Based on this logic, he explains that there should be four "rows" on the Seder plate (see picture below). In the first "row", there is the karpas and vinegar (salt water), which are the first items to be taken. The matzah is in the next "row," the maror and charoset is in the third "row" and in the last "row" are the two cooked items, which are not taken during the meal. (See Mishnah Berurah 473:26 who notes that later authorities were not that concerned with the principle of not passing over by the shank bone, the egg, the maror and the charoset.)
The Be'er Hetev (473:8, 18th century) quotes in the name of the Ari z"l (16th century) a slightly different Seder plate. This Seder plate still has six items but instead of salt water/ vinegar there are two types of maror, horseradish and lettuce, see our discussion below on “Maror.” In addition, the items are placed as two triangles on the Seder plate (see below), and the Seder plate is symbolic of the ten sefirot of the Kabbalah. The number ten is arrived at by adding the three matzot, which are below the Seder plate, the six items on the plate and the plate itself. The order of this Seder plate follows the structure of the ten sefirot since each item is said to symbolize a different sefirah. I am not completely sure what these connections are, but here goes.
The three matzot underneath the Seder plate, represent the three sefirot of keter, binah and da'at. The chazeret (lettuce), which symbolizes the sefirah of yesod, is closest to the person in the middle of the plate. In the next row on the right side (the male side) is charoset, symbolic of the sefirah of nezach, and on the left side (the female side) is the karpas, symbolic of the sefirah of hod. Above them slightly is the maror (horseradish) in the middle directly above the chazeret, and this is symbolic of the sefirah of tiferet. In the top row, on the right side is the shank bone, symbolic of the sefirah of gevurah, and on the left side is the egg, which is symbolic of the sefirah of hesed. The plate itself is symbolic of the sefirah of malchut.
The order or placement of the items in Ari z”l Seder plate differs from Rama's Seder plate in two ways. One, with the Ari z”l’s Seder plate one must pass over some items since the chazeret is before the karpas and charoset is closer to the person than the maror. Two, in the Rama's Seder plate the order of the items in each row was inconsequential, while by the Ari's Seder plate, the order of the row (right side/ left side) is very important.
I doubt that the Ari z"l used horseradish for maror, which makes me skeptical that this Seder plate is really from the Ari z"l. In any event, we see how the Seder plate was transformed from a pre-existing custom/ law to accord with Kabbalistic symbolism.
In the 18th century, the Gra suggested a simpler Seder plate with just four items (not counting the matzah), see Ma’aseh Rav 181 and Haggadah of Encyclopedia Talmudit, 2005, p. 16. The Gra removed the karpas, has only one type of maror on the Seder plate, and two matzot. The removal of karpas also means that there is no need for salt water or vinegar in the Seder plate. Maybe he removed the karpas since by his time it was just considered as a prop to attract questions. With the Gra's Seder Plate, the two cooked items (the egg and shank bone) are closest to the person, the matzot are in the middle of the plate, and the maror and charoset are further back.
The Arukh Hashulchan (473:11) writes that the custom in his time, the end of the 19th century, was like the Ari z"l. My impression is that today this remains the most popular custom for the Seder plate, with some changes. One, many people do not have three matzot underneath the Seder plate. Two, many modern Seder plates, have the six items from the Ari z”l’s Seder plate but do not follow the “correct” placement of the items. For example, in one Seder plate that I have, the six items are in a circle with the maror moved to the edge on the right and the chazeret is moved from the bottom middle to the edge on the left in the middle row. Two other Seder plates that I have also place the items in a circle, but the order of the items cannot be easily matched up with the order of the items in the Ari z”l’s Seder plate. Apparently, the artists or manufactures of these Seder plates were unaware or unconcerned with the Kabbalistic symbolism of the placement of the items.
A table of the different items:
|
Mishnah
|
Shulchan Arukh
|
Rama
|
Ari z"l
|
Gra
|
|
Matzah
|
3 Matzot
|
Matzot
|
3 Matzot
|
2 Matzot
|
1
|
Chazeret
|
Maror
|
Maror
|
Chazeret
|
Maror
|
2
|
Charoset
|
Charoset
|
Charoset
|
Charoset
|
Charoset
|
3,4
|
Two cooked foods
|
Shank bone and egg
|
Shank bone and egg
|
Shank bone from a
lamb and an egg
|
Shank bone and egg
|
5
|
Chazeret
|
Karpas
|
Karpas
|
Karpas
|
|
6
|
|
|
Vinegar (salt
water)
|
|
|
6
|
|
|
|
maror
|
|
A table of the
different orders of the Seder plate from the perspective that the top items are
furthest away from the person.
Seder Plate of
the Rama
|
Seder Plate of
the Ari z"l
(3 matzot
underneath)
|
Seder Plate of
the Gra
|
Shank bone and egg
Maror and charoset
Matzot
Karpas and vinegar
|
Egg Shank bone
Maror
Karpas
Charoset
Chazeret
|
Charoset Maror
Two matzot
Egg and shank bone
|