Seder Sefirot

The theme is interconnectedness, the motifs all along the piece are the words of Dayenu, which in its 15 stanzas declares 15 instances of Hashem’s kindness that all would have been good enough on their own.

Keter (Crown): the table itself. It’s the unknownable root of Will and divine initiation. It’s beyond intellect. The table is the root of the Jewish story. Though it’s an object, it has intangible spiritual beauty; the collective of it technically makes it beyond the realm of individual understanding.

Chochmah (Wisdom): the Haggadah. Raw and underdeveloped idea, the whole point of the Hada is the formula of questions and depositing open mindedness.

Binah (Understanding): the matzah. Analysis, development. The simplest bread nods to the primordial intellect that makes man unique, and also represents civilization.

Chesed (Kindness): the shankbone. Unbounded giving, unrestrained love. Nothing best represents this like sacrifice.

Gevurah (Strength): the egg. Restriction and discipline; boundaries. The egg has a shell and eggs only get harder the more they cook.

Tiferet (Beauty): the maror. The harmony of Chesed and Gevurah; truth balance integration. Maror is hardy and bitter, but a vegetables. It creates pungency but without the severity of bodily sacrifice.

Netzach (Endurance): the charoset. Dr. persistence, victory over time. The charoset represents the mortar of our hard labor while enslaved. the sweetness of our eventual liberation.

Hod (Splendor): the karpas. Humility, acknowledgment. The karpas is a lowly vegetable dipped in saltwater to represent our tears, a.k.a. our humble beginnings.

Yesod (Foundation): the lettuce. Connection and channeling combining forces. The purpose of the lettuce is for Korech, the sandwich that binds everything together.

Malchut (Royalty): the four cups. The final stage where everything becomes manifest; the cups are at the table, they are at once singular and plural. Grapes come from an earthen source and take human labor; wine is a product of human civilization, is both sweet and strong, makes one’s heart loving or harsh, and opens the mind while other times making it stubborn.