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Eat Parsley In Remembrance of Me (Part 1 of 2)

By Aaron Eby  | Comments (7) | Posted on April 7, 2008

Are you looking for ways to memorialize Yeshua in your Passover seder? That's easy to do with the wine and the matzah, and even with the shankbone on the seder plate. But what about the karpas?

The karpas is a vegetable, commonly parsley, celery or a potato. It is not a bitter herb. It is commonly dipped in salt water and then eaten near the beginning of the seder.

What does the karpas symbolize?

There is no explanation in the Haggadah as to the meaning of the karpas. It just says to wash hands, dip the veggie, say the blessing, eat and move on.

It is typically explained that the salt water represents tears. That explains the salt water, but not the karpas.

The karpas is so mysterious that some Jewish commentators simply shrug and say that its sole purpose is to do something unusual so as to pique the children's curiosity. But is that really its only function?

Where does the word karpas come from?

A good start in determining the meaning of the symbol is to consider the meaning of the word karpas. Karpas does not even sound like a Hebrew word. It is used one time in the Hebrew Scriptures:

[There were hangings of] fine white and violet linen held by cords of fine purple linen on silver rings and marble columns, and couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and precious stones. (Esther 1:6)

What is rendered here as "fine white and violet linen" is chur karpas utechelet, which might be better understood as three separate items:

• chur: white linen
• karpas: cotton or fine linen
• techelet: blue-dyed wool

This word karpas comes from the Persian word kirpas and Sanskrit karpasa, which means, "cotton." Some suggest that the use of the term in Esther is not meant to describe the material the cloth is made of, but rather the green color of the cotton plant. In context, this makes sense, considering all of the vivid colors described in the verse.

Thus, in Esther, karpas denotes a fancy fabric, possibly green in color.

The Greek language has bearing on this too. It also has the words karpasos ("cotton" or "linen") and the similar sounding word karpos, which can mean "produce/fruit" or "wrist" (like "carpal tunnel").

The Talmud uses the term karpas to refer to fine fabric or to certain green plants: namely celery or parsley. However, the Talmud does not describe the vegetable at the seder as karpas -- it simply uses the term yerek ("vegetable"), derived from the word yarok ("green"). So if we are just talking about a vegetable, why does the Haggadah use the term karpas rather than yerek? In other words, why not just use the simple Hebrew term for "green vegetable" rather than using another term that has the association with fancy cloth?

Why do we dip the karpas?

Salt water represents the tears of slavery in Egypt, right? Perhaps, but salt water is actually a relatively recent and European phenomenon. In ancient sources and in Jewish cultures outside of Europe, the karpas is not dipped in salt water but in charoset or red wine vinegar. As the Jewish population spread northward, red wine vinegar became less accessible. In addition, Jews had to endure the blood libel -- the horrendous accusation that Jews used the blood of Christian children in their Passover rituals. And so salt water became the predominant alternative in Europe.

But if the original practice was to dip in charoset or red wine vinegar, then what was the intended meaning?

Charoset is a mushy concoction made with apples and/or other fruit, nuts, wine and spices. It is symbolic of the mortar and straw that the children of Israel used as a part of their forced labor, and thus it is a symbol of their servitude.

The Jerusalem Talmud (cited by Tosafot on b.Pesachim 116a) offers further symbolism of charoset, explaining that charoset contains wine in order to remember the blood of the slaughtered Jewish babies. Tradition teaches that Pharaoh bathed in the blood of Jewish children to cure his leprosy. Thus, charoset is made red with wine to remind ourselves of the death of those little ones. Blood is actually a symbol of redemption in the seder, relating to the Passover lamb and the plague of the Nile River, and commentaries often also connect it with circumcision. Red wine vinegar bears the same blood-like appearance.

With this symbolism present, the dipping of the green vegetable in a symbol for blood is reminiscent of the hyssop:

You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. (Exodus 12:22)

That explains its relationship to the seder. However, it doesn't answer the question about why the term karpas (with cloth connotations) is used, nor why its explanation is omitted by the Haggadah.

Continued: Part 2 of this study can be found here.

About the Author: Aaron Eby writes for messiah magazine and other FFOZ publications. He is also the author of the forthcoming siddur project, as well as the forthcoming Hebrew lesson DVD.

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