One of my favorite yearly traditions with my BBYO chapter is hosting a chocolate seder around Passover. Every year my chapter plans a seder, but with a catch. Every seder item is made of chocolate or has some chocolate component. Some years my chapter has done the event with other chapters and sometimes it’s by ourselves. 

Every item on the seder plate represents an idea truly necessary to this 8 day holiday.

- Starting off, the egg or beitzah. Instead of the normal egg, we use a chocolate egg, symbolizing the spring season and festival to come. 

- Next, for the shank bone, we would instead use a solid, molded chocolate bone dipped in chocolate sauce. This sculpted piece of chocolate represents the outstretched arm that G-D led the Israelites to freedom with.

- Instead of maror, or bitter herbs,  we use the darkest chocolate we can find as a fun way to remind us of the harshness slaves faced in Egypt for the simpleness of being Israelites. 

- Next up, the chazeret. While this one is also a bitter herb, we get a dark chocolate with a tangy element like orange. 

- My favorite item on the seder plate is charoset. For a chocolate seder though, we have a mix of melted chocolate, chopped nuts, and chopped apples mixed together. This is meant to mimic the mortar used by Jewish People during a time of slavery to Pharaoh.

- Last but not least, the karpas would be a green apple dipped in chocolate. Personally, I wouldn’t dip this in saltwater but you’re more than welcome to. If dipped in saltwater, this chocolate covered green apple would represent both the tears of slavery as well as the rebirth of spring.

The story of Passover is meant to remind us annually that time and time again as Jews were faced with discrimination. Whether that is persecution as in the passover story, or antisemitism that so many teens deal with today in schools, we as a people will prevail. Telling these stories is part of the reason why Jews prevail, after all, if we don’t want history to repeat itself we must never allow it to be forgotten, that’s true for any event. Every year I look forward to a chocolate seder with my AZA chapter for these reasons. In order to tell stories, maintain our heritage, and enjoy (for the most part) chocolate with some of my closest brothers.