Seder meal for students honors passover, provides traditional experience
Matzah, unleavened bread served at the Seder meal (Photo: Nancy R. Cohen/Photodisc/Getty Images)
As Easter approaches, Lee's Student Leadership Council (SLC) will be hosting a traditional Seder meal on Tuesday evening to allow students and the surrounding community to honor the Passover and worship in a new way.
Rabbi Michael Weiner from Shomair Yisrael Messianic Synagogue in Knoxville will present the different elements that make up the Seder plate, explaining the significance of each one throughout the dinner.
The event will commence on Tuesday, March 22 at 7 p.m. in Humanities room 103.
While the communion-like meal will be more of a 'symbolic snack' than a full dinner, SLC members hope it will encourage students to celebrate God's sacrifice and the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith.
Secretary of SLC's Faith and Integration Committee Michael Neubert believes it is important for Christians to understand where their faith originates from, as well as how much God has sacrificed for his people.
"We celebrate God and what he's done, and glorify that [through] the prayers we pray, the liturgy we say and the community and the time we set aside," Neubert said. "The more we appreciate [and] understand how meaningful it is, the more it can help us live our lives as a reflection of God."
The Seder meal is traditionally served in Hebrew and includes six different food items, each covering some aspect of Jewish history. The dinner will be broken into four sections, each signified by the drinking of grape juice and eating of matzah, unleavened cracker-like bread.
Junior Nic Donovan, member of SLC's faith and integration committee, has participated in the Seder meal a handful of times, and said he particularly enjoys the theology and history of the tradition.
"I think it's important to learn as much as we can about our faith and why we do certain things because the more we learn the more we see God moving in those things," Donovan said.
This is the second year SLC has hosted the event on campus, which offers people an experience that they may not have the chance to take part in otherwise.
"The Rabbi views this as a ministry and he travels [to] many different places. It's a form of outreach and ministry to Christians to help us remember where we came from and remember our roots," Neubert said. "It's a really good community-building event...the more people the merrier!"
