The head of the family or his substitute who reads the Service has before him on the table: (1) three unleavened cakes (matsoth); [102] (2) bitter herbs and other vegetables; [103] (3) salt water, in which the vegetables (karpas) are dipped before they are eaten, and charoseth, a mixture of apples, almonds, various spices, especially cinnamon, and wine, in which mixture the bitter herbs are dipped; [104] (4) a bone with some meat on it and an egg, [105] both roasted. The order of the Service is indicated in most editions of the Haggadah in rhymed Hebrew as follows:— ‏קדש ורחַץ . כרפס יחַץ . מגיד רחַץ . מוציא מצָה.‎ ‏שלחן ערֵךְ . מרור כרֵךְ . צפון ברֵךְ . הלל נרצָה׃‎ The following is the explanation of these lines:— 1. ‏קדש‎ Say Kiddush. See above, page 379. 2. ‏רחץ‎ “Wash,” scil., your hands.—Only the head of the family does so at this part of the Service. [106] 3. ‏כרפס‎ “Vegetables.” A piece of parsley or salad or bitter herb is dipped in salt water, and eaten after the recitation of the blessing: ‏ברוך … בורא פרי האדמה‎ “Blessed art thou ... who hast created the fruit of the ground.” [107] 4. ‏יחץ‎ “He divides.” Of the three matsoth before him, the head of the family breaks the middle one, part of which is laid aside, to be eaten at the end of the meal. [108] 5. ‏מגיד‎ “Relating,” [109] scil., the history of the departure from Egypt. The reader, pointing to the broken ‏מצה‎ before him, exclaims, “Such was the bread of poverty which our forefathers ate in the land of Egypt;” as if to say, “We are all alike descendants of those who ate the bread of poverty in Egypt.” In the same sense, the reader continues, “We all alike should rejoice in the kindnesses shown by the Almighty to our nation, and all alike should seek and find true comfort in the hope of the Messianic blessing promised by Him for the future.” [110] One of the company, usually the youngest, puts to the reader four questions, as formulated in the paragraph beginning ‏מה נשתנה‎ “Why is different?” [111] Additions and alterations may, of course, be made by the inquirer according to his knowledge and intellect. The object of these questions is to obtain an explanation of the rites that distinguish this evening from others. In answer to these questions, the reader refers to the past history of Israel in three different forms, [112] viz.:— (1.) The first answer begins, ‏עבדים היינו‎, “We were slaves;” and ends, ‏בשעה שיש מצה ומרור מונחים לפניך‎ “When unleavened bread and bitter herbs lie before thee.” Here the reader restricts himself, without any comment, to the one fact that our forefathers were at first slaves in Egypt, and were then delivered, and illustrates the duty of speaking that night more fully concerning the departure from Egypt, by precedent, by the authority of the Mishnah, and by the Midrashic interpretation of the law commanding us to tell our children this event.