On Making Charoset without a Seder

I don't let go of my heritage, I let Jesus make more

I diced apples and pears, chopped dates, pulsed hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts and pistachios in the food processor, measured a bit of Spanish red wine, and zested the lemon for a Sephardi charoset. As I prepared the traditional Passover cross between fruit salad and trail mix, I wondered whether a Passover meal qualifies as “my heritage.”

It surely doesn’t, in that my ancestors are not the persecuted people of Israel.

But, I am a child of God, and the people of Israel are His people. Jesus was a Jew, and I follow him. The disciples of a Rabbi would walk where their Rabbi walked, sleep where he slept, and eat what he ate. So, in a spiritual sense, Passover food is my heritage. And because I’ve made my family a Passover Seder so many times that it’s woven into our family culture, it has become my children’s heritage as well. I don’t know if they’ll make their children a Seder, but I hope they’ll tell about the Passovers we celebrated as a family.

As I was contemplating my heritage and why we hold on to the food from our pasts, I was reminded of these words from Beth Moore’s memoir.

“My heritage, so precious to me, could not be stripped from me any more than my future could be stolen. God would see to his good pleasure. No trading in. No trading out. No such scarcity can be found in the Spirit. I could hold on to all of it. Every last bit of it. For he who called me was holding on to me.”

Beth Moore, All My Knotted Up Life

This newsletter is my effort to hold on to the heritage that is so precious to me, even as I cling to Jesus for my future.

Although we did not host a Passover Seder this year, I made this Sephardi Charoset to honor Jewish people from Spain and North Africa. It calls for figs, which is what makes it truly unique among other charoset recipes, but they are not yet in season here in Madrid. For us they are more of a summer fruit.

Easter Sunday was a delightfully warm day and we enjoyed the charoset as part of our fancy meal of kofta, rice, and asparagus and tomato salad. Is there any vegetable more suited to Easter than asparagus?