Houston Chronicle Religion Writer Doreen Mosier adds soul to her matzo balls. Sure, it takes a little more time. Mosier is adding to a course that will be one of many on tonight's Passover table. Instead, she is infusing an Eastern European tradition passed down through generations into a holiday that celebrates freedom, history and family. The holiday is celebrated at home with a Seder, a ritual meal that incorporates food and family into the telling of the biblical story.
Food is very much connected to spirituality in Judaism.
In addition to the ritual foods of the ceremony, the Passover Seder ends with a meal. Often it is the most elaborate and complicated of the year. The combination of the rituals and festive meal means that food plays a number of roles at Passover. Then there are traditional foods, cultural dishes that are made according to the holiday's complicated dietary restrictions that prohibit leavened products and many grains. Finally, there is the meal at the end of the ritual, which the Bible says should be festive, he said.