A Sweet Seder With Rodef 2100
Sara Levene recalls being 8 years old at the Passover seder table at Congregation Or Chadash in Damascus, Maryland. Instead of bitter herbs and horseradish, the multicourse meal was made of chocolate.
Levene pitched the idea to host a chocolate seder to her fellow board members at Rodef 2100, the young adult community of Temple Rodef Shalom, who enthusiastically agreed.
“It was a good way to get [kids] excited, learn about Passover and keep them engaged,” Levene said. “And I thought it’d be fun to do as an adult. Who doesn’t like chocolate?”
Rodef 2100 is hosting a chocolate seder on April 16, she said, adding that the cacao confection is perfect for the middle of the eight-day holiday.
“I’m excited to do something creative and fun,” Ilana Morof, a Rodef 2100 board member who’s co-organizing the event, said. “We’re doing this mid-Passover week, so I’m excited to have a refreshing meal to get us through the rest of the Passover.”
After a traditional kosher-for-Passover dinner, the up to 30 attendees will partake in a “seder plate reinvented.” Levene said she’ll serve a chocolate lamb in place of the lamb shank bone and chocolate eggs in place of the usual hard-boiled egg. Salty potato chips dipped in chocolate will represent the karpas — parsley traditionally dipped in salt water during a seder.
The charoset, usually a sweet mixture of chopped nuts, grated apples and cinnamon, will be a cocoa powder-covered fruit salad. Chili chocolate will stand in for the maror — bitter herbs that symbolize the harshness of slavery that Hebrews endured in Egypt.
“We’re trying to find the right balance between respecting the seder and not changing too much, so you still get everything, and having a chocolate version,” Levene said.
The meal includes chocolate-covered matzah and a four-cup ceremony of chocolate milk, hot cocoa, chocolate liqueur and other sweet drinks.
Morof and Levene will make some treats the night before, including a kosher chocolate mousse, a flourless chocolate cake with raspberry compote, truffles, chocolate-covered strawberries and small chocolate frogs, the latter representing the second of the 10 divine plagues.
Levene and Morof, who both have dietary restrictions, were careful to ensure that the food at this chocolate seder is allergy-friendly — the charoset doesn’t contain nuts, the mousse is dairy-free and the cake is gluten-free.
“There’s always some amount of food anxiety going to an event like this, where [someone with food allergies has] to sit there worrying about if they’re going to eat something that’s gonna ruin the night,” Levene said. “Passover is a celebration, and everyone should be able to celebrate with a clear head and no anxiety.”
And like any other Passover seder, one can’t forget the Four Questions, which Morof said will look a little different than usual at the chocolate seder.
“For example, where we say ‘On all other nights, we eat chametz or matzah; why on this night do we only eat matzah?’ we also put in English, ‘On all other nights, we eat all kinds of food; why on this night do we eat only chocolate?’” Morof said. “And ‘[On all other nights,] we don’t even use chocolate dip, so why on this night do we dip in chocolate?’”
Morof and Levene have written a chocolate-themed version of the Haggadah. Instead of the four children who traditionally attend the seder, attendees will have the “four chocolates,” or a chance to share their four favorite types of chocolate or four favorite ways to eat it, in addition to the retelling of the Passover story.
We all know the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the Book of Exodus. Levene and Morof are adding one more: “stomachache.”
Register for Rodef 2100’s chocolate seder at templerodefshalom.shulcloud.com/form/rodef-2100-chocolate-seder-2025.html.
