Date Haroset

This luscious Sephardi haroset is very easy to prepare. But its simple ingredients comprise a complex metaphor of the Exodus: the dark fruit and nut paste brings to mind the mortar formed from the silt of the Nile, used to build the pyramids: the wine evokes the blood shed by the Hebrew slaves and, later, by the Egyptians during the tenth plague: and the sweetness is the taste of the Israelites’ eventual freedom. In addition to these edible symbols, some Sephardim suggest the bitterness of