Zeroa

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Zeroa (Hebrew: זרוֹע) is a lamb shank bone, or a piece of roast chicken wing or neck, placed on the Passover Seder plate. It symbolizes the korban Pesach, the Passover sacrifice once offered in the Temple in Jerusalem. After the Temple’s destruction in 70 CE, the Zeroa is not eaten during the Seder in Ashkenazi and many Sephardi families; it is kept as a visual reminder of the sacrifice. Some vegetarians substitute a beet, citing Pesachim 114b. The custom comes from the Gemara in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, which discuss the two dishes—Zeroa and an egg (Beitza)—brought to the Seder night to symbolize the Chagigah offering.