Karpas
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Karpas is one of the traditional rituals in the Passover Seder. It refers to dipping a vegetable in some liquid and eating it. Vegetables used include potatoes, celery, parsley, radishes and others. The liquid may be any of the seven which make food capable of becoming ritually impure, although salt-water or vinegar are usually used. The idea behind the salt water is to symbolize the salty tears that the Jews shed in their slavery in Egypt. The vegetables symbolize the coming of the spring.
Some have explained the dipping of the Karpas to symbolize Josef's tunic being dipped into blood by his brothers. Karpas is therefore done at the beginning of the seder, just as Josef's tunic being dipped into blood began the Israelites descent to Egypt. Indeed, the word Karpas, in some languages, means cloth.
