Wiktionary
n. (context Judaism English) A traditional ritual dish eaten at Passover, consisting of a vegetable (typically celery or parsley) dipped in salt water or other liquid.
Wikipedia
Karpas is one of the traditional rituals in the Passover Seder. It refers to the vegetable, usually parsley or celery, that is dipped in liquid (usually salt water) and eaten. Other customs are to use raw onion, or boiled potato. The word comes from the Greek 'karpos' meaning a fresh raw vegetable. The karpas is traditionally placed on the seder plate on the left side, below the roasted egg. The liquid may be any of the seven which make food capable of becoming ritually impure, although salt-water or wine 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.
One reason given for dipping a vegetable into saltwater is provoke children to ask about it, as per the theme of the Seder night that the story is to be recounted by way of question and answer. Dipping a vegetable prior to the main meal is not usually done at other occasions, and thus arouses the curiosity of the children. There is a second ceremonial dipping later in the Seder, when maror is dipped into the charoset. Hence one of the Four Questions, traditionally sung by the youngest at the Seder table, asks why "on all other nights we do not dip vegetables even once, on this night, we dip twice."
Some have explained the dipping of the Karpas to symbolize Joseph's tunic being dipped into blood by his brothers. Karpas is therefore done at the beginning of the seder, just as Joseph's tunic being dipped into blood began the Israelites' descent to Egypt. Indeed, the Greek word 'karpos' is very similar to the Hebrew word 'karpas' meaning fine linen.
Usage examples of "karpas".
Redwing of Springtree, Basl and Karpas, soon many believed to become Basl, Karpas and Redwing, had legal matters on her mind light years away from tribal concerns.
Thyrn, by contrast, had accidentally thwarted the vaulting ambitions of his powerful master Vashnar, the Chief Warden of Arvenstaat, and, with a few reluctant allies, had been driven into the Karpas Mountains to be hunted as an outlaw.
We should go west along the coast, but only until we reach the Karpas Mountains.
He placed them well on their way towards the Karpas Mountains which, he presumed, continued north off the map.
Seeking to destroy an entire nation which was strong against his Lord, he tore a great island from its roots and hurled it into their land with such force that what had been a shoreline was crushed and buckled and thrust high into the air to become the Karpas Mountains.
It also came under the scrutiny of one Daniel Springtree, a part Navajo senior partner of Springtree, Basl and Karpas, a law firm to be reckoned with in San Francisco.
Springtree, Basl and Karpas of San Francisco would make you a partner before me.
Wesley Karpas most likely had a fine gray head of hair and by now was probably long retired to some golf community in Arizona.
I had spent an hour calling every Karpas I could find in Philadelphia and the suburbs and getting nowhere.
I had put on my sharpest suit for this meeting with what Angelo Karpas had described as a big-time lawyer and now I regretted that decision.
Wesley Karpas had in mind when he changed his name to Carp and sought to rise in society, this decrepit and rundown house, this money-sucking semifailure of a son.
Then he raised his comm unit to get a very brief assessment from Karpas as to the movements of the Federation personnel .