Jonathan Bernis - How to Host a Seder
Jonathan Bernis: Shalom, my friends, I'm rabbi Jonathan Bernis and I wanna warmly welcome you to this special episode of Jewish Voice. It's part of a series on the Passover. And I have dear friends with me to help me through this. Scott Volk is a dear friend, he's a Jewish believer in Jesus, and many of you know rabbi Jack Zimmerman, our in house evangelist. Guys, I can't think of a better thing to be sharing with you today. We're continuing to talk about the Passover. Today, we're gonna walk through one of the most profound and symbolic celebrations in the Jewish calendar. I would say the most. It's the watershed event in the history of Israel, and it's a watershed event for you because it points to our Savior, to our Messiah, it's the Passover seder. The Passover meal. And this isn't just a remembrance of the Exodus when God brought the people of Israel, the Israelites, out of bondage in Egypt, it's also deeply connected to Yeshua, to Jesus who is our Messiah and Savior. He's the Messiah of Israel, but he's the Savior of the world. The Passover story foreshadows the ultimate redemption that he brings to all who put their trust in him, amen. This celebration is a powerful reminder of God's faithfulness both in history and our lives today. And we're gonna show you how to host. This is so important. We're gonna be practical and show you how to host a Passover celebration, a Passover seder meal in your home or in your community. It's so easy to do, so easy to do.
Jack Zimmerman: Yes, and in fact, of course, the redemption itself comes through the shedding of blood. This is one of the best ways to share the story of God's redemptive work and how he fulfills his promises through Yeshua with our children, our grandchildren, and with our Jewish neighbors.
Scott Volk: Absolutely. Some of my favorite memories as a child, and as an adult, are celebrating the seder with my family, and with me friends.
Jonathan Bernis: Well let's take a moment to share the essentials of the Passover. There's elements to the Passover seder and what they represent. And we'll call these the big five, the major five, right? The essential five, because there's five things. Now, there's more to the seder, and we're gonna guide you through that in the days ahead. We have a kit that we're gonna get to you to help you to do that, but the five essentials we wanna talk about. So, dig in one of you, who wants to start?
Jack Zimmerman: Amen, and you know what, Jonathan? To me, the biggest of the five is the shank bone of the lamb at the Passover seder. Why? Because the whole theme of Passover is redemption. We were redeemed, our ancestors were redeemed by the blood of a lamb that was slain and that blood smearn on the lintels and the doorposts of the houses of the people in Egypt. When the angel of death saw that blood on the doorpost, he would not bring death to that home, but instead he would pass over. So, we have the symbolism of a physical lamb, an innocent lamb that was slain, and the blood atoning for the sin of the people, and it points to Yeshua, our Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. In John 1:29, for he is our lamb and it was his blood shed for us that redeems us from sin and slavery. I love this, I just wish there was meat on it.
Jonathan Bernis: You see that he's our evangelist, great job. And that is number one. Out of the five that's the most important. There's really three that are pillars, but there's five that are really important. Scott, this is number two.
Scott Volk: Yeah, amazing, a flat piece of bread with no leaven in it. You know, there was not time for the bread to rise when God was telling the children of Israel to prepare the Passover so he said he wants them to eat bread without any leaven. And this bread is a picture of Jesus, Yeshua, the Lamb of God, when he says, "This is my body, broken for you". And as we look at this piece of matza it's very interesting because one thing that happens in the Passover seder is the father of the house takes the middle of three pieces of matza, breaks it in half during the Passover seder, hides that piece that's broken, wraps it in a white linen cloth, and then the children go and find it at the end of the meal. And then that piece of matza, which is called the "Afikomen" comes out. It's like the desert. It's like the ending part. It's the highlight of the meal. The child who finds it gets a little gift, maybe a quarter, maybe a dollar, we don't know how much...
Jonathan Bernis: It's ten bucks, my kids will do that for ten bucks.
Scott Volk: Inflation.
Jonathan Bernis: I got a quarter.
Scott Volk: Inflation. But it's the very piece of bread that Yeshua breaks and gives to his disciples. Amazing, amazing.
Jonathan Bernis: It's redeemed. It's redeemed.
Scott Volk: It's redemption.
Jonathan Bernis: But the amazing thing is that some scholars say, and I think it's true, that afikomen, the word afikomen that you mentioned isn't Hebrew, it's Greek, and it means, "I came".
Scott Volk: I came.
Jonathan Bernis: Ooh.
Jack Zimmerman: Yes.
Jonathan Bernis: Imagine that Jewish people around the world are doing this every year and they're eating the afikomen, the broken middle piece, and they don't know that it's Jesus, that it's Yeshua. But they'll find out. Some say that this was a first century Messianic tradition that made its way into the traditional Passover seder, I don't know. So those are the first two. Jack, the third one, which is the essential. This is the big three out of the five essentials.
Jack Zimmerman: The bitter herbs, a reminder of the bitterness of slavery when the Israelites endured it, when they were slaves in Egypt, but also the bitterness for us who have not yet, for those who have not yet accepted Yeshua. The bitterness of being a slave to the devil, to the enemy, and that's why this whole theme of redemption is so important. We are redeemed from the bitterness of slavery and bondage having the promise of freedom, going out into our Promised Land of eternal life.
Jonathan Bernis: Amen.
Scott Volk: Awesome.
Jonathan Bernis: And the reason I say that these are the three pillars is because these are the three things that the Israelites ate in Egypt, in their home under the protection of their blood covered door while the angel of death passed over. Those were the only three things they ate according to the scriptures, but there's two more that are really essentials. Scott, number four.
Scott Volk: Ah, the cup.
Jonathan Bernis: It's really important because it's about handing down this to the children, it's the four questions.
Scott Volk: The four questions, amazing. The youngest child often asks four questions at the seder meal and these questions gives the father an opportunity to answer these questions by talking about the story of redemption. How God brought his people out, how he saved them, how he slayed the Egyptians with his mighty right arm, and how he brought his children into the land of promise. So, his children around the world are on this night asking their dad the question, the father or the grandfather of the house gets to explain the four questions.
Jack Zimmerman: Yeah.
Jonathan Bernis: And the final one, I've switched the order because it's so profoundly connected to the last supper.
Scott Volk: Yeah.
Jonathan Bernis: And that's the four cups of wine. Or some say grape juice. We know its wine. The disciples fell asleep after, and the prayer, it was wine. Okay, I'm gonna get some negative letters for that. Go ahead and bomb me with the letters, I'll give 'em to Jack to answer. Both of you chime in on this because it's so big.
Scott Volk: Well, I just love that at the last supper Jesus picked up the cup at a certain point in the meal and he said, "Take drink. This is the blood of the new covenant, this is my blood". So when he says, "This is my blood", he's not only demonstrating that he is the Passover lamb, but it came at a very integral part of the Passover seder. That cup is significant, it's the third cup. So, maybe just explain what those four cups are and why Jesus chose the third cup to pick up, and to say, "Take and drink, and remember me".
Jack Zimmerman: So it's basically communion. Look, do you realize anytime that you have partaken in communion you have already participated in part of a Passover seder? You've partaken in the third cup of the Passover seder. But why does it start off with the first cup, which is called the cup of sanctification or the cup of holiness? Because you wanna start off this festival being reminded that our holiness, our righteousness, doesn't come from anything that we have ever done or can ever do. We're reminded that any righteousness we think we have forget it, it's like filthy rags. Our righteousness and holiness doesn't come from anything we've ever done, it comes from everything that Christ already did.
Jonathan Bernis: So well put. We've created a special kit that will help you through this, with a guide book. Each element of the seder plays a role in retelling the story of redemption and brings profound depth. It's like forming a tapestry that weaves the past, the present, and the future into one beautiful meal of redemption and hope.
Jonathan Bernis: Now, I invite you to join me in a Passover seder meal. Now, the Passover seder is a beautiful, and deeply symbolic meal that recounts God's mighty redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt, and it points us to the ultimate redemption through Yeshua, through Jesus the Messiah. I have a beautiful family joining me today. Clinton and Lydia, thank you for doing this, and bringing your beautiful children. I'm gonna take you through the elements of the seder, of the meal, the actual Passover meal. And it looks pretty elaborate but it's actually quite simple. And all of the elements that we're gonna talk about are readily available. I know it looks very elaborate but there's really a simplicity to this which you'll see along the way. So I'll take you through the different elements and then we'll go through the actually seder.
The service that is taking place around this incredible meal that we wanna invite you to do at home because it will really be meaningful to you and people you invite. So, let's begin with each element, and I'll take you through it. The "Urchatz," or the washing of the hands, is really the beginning of the seder. We're simply preparing ourselves. We're washing our hands. This was very typical of any meal that was consumed by a Jewish person, by an observant Jewish person. They wash their hands. Now Jesus actually criticized the pharisees because they didn't wash their hands at one point and he says, "Look, all food is declared sanctified. It's not what goes into your mouth it's what goes into your heart and what comes out of your heart".
But this is a very important part of the seder meal. We're sanctifying, we're washing our hands. There is no blessing for this because there's no bread present yet. We're not yet eating. And this symbolizes, again, the cleansing, the purification. Messianic believers reflect on Yeshua's washing of his disciples feet. He took it that much further and he washed their feet as an act of humility and servanthood, and that's the beginning of our seder meal. We begin with the "Kadesh," which is the first cup of four cups of wine or grape juice. We're gonna consume during the meal. And there's a prayer that we say, it's a prayer in Hebrew and I'm gonna give it to you in Hebrew and then in English.
And this is one of the first things that's done in the seder meal, the consuming of the first cup of wine, which is a sanctification. It's separating this time, this meal, this observance from everything else. It's a set aside time to remember the Exodus out of Egypt. So, we raise the glass and we say, "Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha'olam, borei p'ri hagefen". And here is the English, "Blessed are you, o Lord our God, king of the universe who creates the fruit of the vine". Get that? The vine, the branches. That may be Jesus eluding to the Passover seder when he said, "I'm the vine, you're the branches, if you abide in me you will bear fruit". So the cup of sanctification, the first cup that we're gonna consume during the Passover seder.
The "Yachatz" is the next thing and this is a highlight, this is a high point in the seder. We have three matzot, three pieces of matza, boards of matza, and they're wrapped together. Three of them wrapped together. Now, just pay attention to this because this is really important. This is really, really significant. So we have what's called a matzah tosh, which is part of our kit, and the three pieces of matza. And at this point in the seder, we're taking the middle piece of matza, not the bottom, not the top, but the middle piece. They're all separated, but they're together. They're distinct, but they're together. And we're taking the middle piece of the three out from the three and we're breaking it in half. It's not perfect, but you get the idea, it's broken in half. Why the middle piece?
Well, the rabbis tell us, the sages tell us it represents Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Well there's an argument, other rabbis, since you have two rabbis, three opinions, say that, "No, it's speaking of the kingly line, the priestly line, and the people of Israel, the am ha'aretz". Okay, but why is the middle piece broken? Nobody has an answer. Well, how about this one? How about three pieces, separate but together, father, son, the Messiah, and the Spirit of God, the Ruach Hakodesh's, the Holy Spirit. The middle piece, the son, the Mashiach is broken, the Messiah's broken, and what we do is we take a cloth, we wrap half the middle piece, this is happening in every Jewish home around the world and they don't know why.
Very interesting. We wrap this piece and then we take the middle, the other half, we insert it back in the middle, okay? And that, that's left alone now. But the middle piece that we've left out and wrapped we hide, we bury, and then the kids find it. They hunt around at the end of the meal, they find it and then they redeem it. And they leader of the seder has to pay them for it, it has to be redeemed. I used to get a quarter, my kids have been demanding more. They get $10 now. The one that finds it gets $10. And the leader or the designated leader hides it, the assistant hides it somewhere where they can find it with some trouble. It's redeemed, it's broken into the number of pieces of the participants, and they eat it as the last thing.
Come on, this is talking about Yeshua being broken for us, buried, being resurrected, redeemed, and then we partake, right, of his body, which is broken for us in the communion. It's absolutely amazing. It's done in every Jewish home without understanding, but you can help them understand when you have your seder and invite them and explain what the middle piece really means. Now the matza, or the unleavened bread. In here we have a big stack of it. It's not the most delicious thing, but it's very, very important. It's bread that hasn't had time to rise. And so now we make it without yeast, so it can't rise. And it reminds us of the speed in which the Israelites had to quickly leave Egypt. Pharaoh kept changing his mind. "Yes go. No, you can't go. Go, you can't go". And they had to leave in haste.
And so the bread didn't have time to rise, and so we remember that with unleavened bread. And this goes all the way back to the first seder. There was only three things they ate: the matza, the unleavened bread, which didn't have time to rise, they ate lamb, and they ate bitter herbs. Only those three. Those are the only three essential elements, foods that were consumed in the original Passover. So this is really important. Isn't it interesting that the matza has all of these stripes in it, this is manufactured, but this is typical of matza that are used around the world, it's pierced.
Do you see the pierce marks in this? He was pierced for our inequities and, "We will look upon him whom we have pierced," it tells us in Zechariah, "And mourn for him," as they Jewish people recognize that in fact Jesus is Yeshua, their promised Messiah. So all that is in this unleavened bread. And one other thing, leaven, according to the New Testament, is symbolic of sin. Paul says, "A little leaven, leavens the whole lump". It's talking about sin, and this bread is without leaven, it's without sin. And it's this bread, not wonder bread, not Italian bread, that Jesus broke with his disciples and said, "This is my body".
And the prayer over the bread, "The motzi," is the same again as any other shabbat, or any other meal, "Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha'olam, hamotzi lechem min haaretz. Blessed are you, o Lord our God, king of the universe who brings forth bread from the earth". And when he's saying, "This is my body, broken for you," and they ate, he was talking about his sinless nature, that he's going to be broken, that he's going to be crucified for the world, for the sins of the world. And only he who was without sin could bear our sin and so we're made the righteousness of God in him. Everybody try this, I don't think you'll like it too much but it's part of our celebration.
The next element of the seder is one of the three. I said before there's only three things that were eaten in the original Passover meal: the matza, and the second one was the "Maror," the bitter herbs, and that's the next thing that we're going to do. We're gonna eat the bitter herbs, the maror, and this is horse radish and it can be very strong or not so strong. But this is maybe the most unpleasant part of the seder. We're remember the pain and suffering of the people of Israel in Egypt as slaves under the task masters of the Egyptians. And so we're remembering that with the maror. "Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha'olam, asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al achilat maror. Blessed are you, o Lord our God, king of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to eat the bitter herbs," particularly on the Passover.
So here we go. Everybody ready? One, two, three, we're doing it together. It's actually not too bad. Yeah, that would be my reaction, but I'm a pro at this. Israel, it's bitter, huh? Yeah. Now, comes the meal. Everybody has been waiting for the meal. We've had little bits and pieces, we've tasted the matza, we've tasted the bitter herbs, that's not so much fun is it gang? But now we're really hungry and it's time for the meal. And this is called the "Shuclchan orech". This is the festive meal, and it literally means "The plate," the order of the meal itself. And this is a festive meal.
Now, traditionally, and of course, in the time of Yeshua and going all the way back to the original seder meal in Egypt, they ate lamb. And that's what we're gonna eat today in our seder meal. It's been replaced by other traditional things like brisket, with chicken, with some kind of protein. And we have a festive meal, the shulchan orech. This is dinner served. It's a meal of freedom. We're reclining because we're free now, and we're enjoying this festive meal that's a whole spread. And Messianic families are reflecting, of course, on Yeshua's presence among us, and we're breaking, really, a fast during the day for this festive meal. So bring it on, and let's eat.
Jonathan Bernis: We leave time in every program for prayer, and maybe you're Jewish and you just, happened on this program, it's not by accident, it's not by coincidence, God wants you to know that he's reaching out to you with eternal life, with the gift of eternal life. That's the Passover story. Don't let this moment pass. All you have to do is say, "God, I love you. I wanna live for you. I believe that Yeshua is my Messiah, that he died for me, and I want him to live inside of me. I wanna live for you". And that's all it takes. So don't let this moment pass. If you need more information let us know, and we will help you through this process. And what's at the end of it? Not only eternal life, but abundant life. It will change your life. I can tell you after 44 years, so don't let this moment pass. And there's a lot of people in need right now, what a great opportunity talking about God's redemption and the Passover to pray for needs today. So, Scott, will you start and just pray for people that are watching?
Scott Volk: Lord, thank you for this Passover. Thank you for the indication that you gave us 3,500 years ago that you are our redeemer. You heard the cries of the Israelite children and you moved on their behalf and we ask you to do that for those of our friends who are watching today. You know our needs before we ask. And we pray that you move in every home, in very household, Lord, that's hearing this prayer. Lord, you know our needs. I pray abundant life for all those watching today, in Yeshua's name.
Jack Zimmerman: Yes, hallelujah. And Heavenly Father we thank you for the blood of the lamb that was slain, that brought about the atonement of sin for the people. Not only, Lord God, in Egypt, but it is still true today, but it's no longer by animal sacrifices because it was, it is, and it always will be about the once and for all sacrifice, Yeshua. I pray that you open minds and hearts to allow each and every one to see that he is the fulfillment of the Passover, in Yeshua's name, hallelujah.
Jonathan Bernis: Amen and amen. We invite you to go deeper and find meaningful ways to support, and to bless Israel, and the global Jewish community by visiting jewishvoice.tv. There you'll discover treasures to grow in your faith and opportunities to make a positive impact. And remember, the greatest news you can give any Jewish person, or anyone for that matter, is the good news of Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah and our Savior. As we close our program today, I wanna remind you to, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem". Psalm 122:6. And it also says, "They'll prosper who love thee". So, love the Jews, love the Arabs, love people, and pray for their redemption. Until next time, this is Jonathan Bernis along with Scott and Jack saying shalom and God bless you.