Vegetarian Passover is a meat-free 'festival of freedom'
Posted on Thu, Apr. 17, 2008
BY ELLEN KANNER
RONNA GRADUS / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
A seder plate for vegetarians, replacing a toy stuffed lamb for the shank bone.
Something will be missing from the Passover Seders of rabbis Judith Siegal and Jody Cohen: Meat. There will be no brisket for dinner. No traditional lamb shank on the Seder plate. In Cohen's case, no egg, either.
Siegal, of Temple Judea in South Miami, gave up meat after studying kashrut, kosher law created, in part, to prevent animal cruelty.
''For me, humane treatment of animals is not to eat them,'' she says.
Cohen, of Miami's Temple Israel, became vegetarian ''for health and ethical reasons.'' Giving up meat in college was the beginning of a process that led her to veganism (the avoidance of all animal products, from honey to leather).
It's all about shalem, she says, a word that comes from ''shalom'' and means ``to be more whole. It's about oneness with ourselves, with the universe, and with God. My belief is we're here as God's partners in the ongoing work of creation.''
Siegal, 34, sees a divine directive in Genesis 1:29, in which God gives Adam and Eve ``every seed-bearing plant that is upon the earth and every tree that has a seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food.''
This weekend, she and her family -- husband Brian and sons Benjamin, 4, and Joshua, 2 -- will be back in her hometown, New Orleans, enjoying her grandmother's vegetarian tsimmes, a meatless mélange of yams, prunes and matzoh balls.
Cohen, 54, doesn't have to travel to enjoy a lavish vegan Seder.
''I like cooking vegan; that's my passion,'' says her Israeli-born husband, Jimmy Gavarian, a baker for the Westin Diplomat's Nikki Marina. ``And if I eat fresh vegetables and fruit, it brings me more connected to the earth.''
''We try to be conscious of what we're eating, to eat foods that are locally grown and seasonal,'' Cohen says. ``How did it get to our table? How are the people treated who are picking the food? When you develop a consciousness, you start looking at food differently.''
Her family is Ashkenazic, tracing its roots to Eastern Europe; his is Sephardic, of Middle Eastern origin. While Cohen associates Passover with the scent of dill, to Gavarian it smells of cinnamon and cardamom, ingredients in his date-rich haroseth, a traditional fruit and nut mixture.
Sephardic Jews also eat rice and legumes at Passover -- a boon for vegetarians -- while many Ashkenazic Jews do not. (Soybean-based tofu, however, has been given the OK for Passover even by Conservative rabbis, Cohen says.)
Honoring Jewish holiday tradition and a meat-free ethos can be tricky. The egg, one of symbolic items on a standard Seder plate, is an issue for vegans. Plant seeds are one substitute symbol for birth and wholeness. Cohen and Gavarian ``use a roasted potato, nuts or onion.''
Then there is the shank bone, representing the lamb the Jews sacrificed before leaving Egypt. Not very animal-friendly. There's Rabbinic precedent for substituting a roasted beet, which can evoke blood with its vivid red juice.
''We've tried a few things,'' says Siegal, including a fuzzy toy lamb on loan for the evening from young Benjamin.
To Cohen and Gavarian, what's important is not the shank bone -- ''It's not going to make me any less Jewish if I don't use it,'' he says -- but the spirit of sacrifice it represents. This year, the couple plans to invite each of their Seder guests to write down what they're willing to give up.
Passover, the commemoration of the Jews' flight from Egypt, is especially poignant for New Orleans-born Siegal, whose childhood synagogue and grandparents' home -- site of huge Seders for her extended family -- both were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Since then, Seders have taken place in her parents' home, but Siegal's unflappable grandmother, raised in an Orthodox family on the Mississippi Delta, still does much of the cooking. She created the veggie tsimmes recipe, which she serves alongside the traditional version made with brisket. She makes vegetable broth as well as chicken soup.
Siegal, who eats fish occasionally, considers vegetarianism ``an ideal we work towards and can strive for.''
Even her meat-eating parents tend to eat vegetarian at Passover. It not only honors the biblical ideal of humanity and compassion, the rabbi says, but it's a good holiday survival technique.
''The best way to get through Passover in a healthy, comfortable way is to stay away from so many processed foods and too much matzoh and eat a lot of vegetables and fruit,'' Siegal says.
Cohen and Gavarian will combine Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions with a vegan twist for the Seder they will host for about a dozen friends and family members, including their 24-year-old son, Ami.
Even Cohen's father, ''a real meat and potatoes guy,'' looks forward to the vegan Seder, she says.
''It can create new kinds of connections for people,'' Cohen says. ``You talk about different subjects, you get into the spiritual and ethical issues.
``It's important to have that human connection, to come together to celebrate this really incredible act of liberation, and food is a wonderful way to do it.''
Ellen Kanner is The Miami Herald's Edgy Veggie columnist.
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