Pesach 5785 / 2025 - Saturday night seder, timings and other hacks

Navigating Pesach 5785/2025 just got easier! With the first night of Seder happening after Shabbat, timing is everything. This guide provides a clear breakdown of essential preparations, from Bedikat Chametz to the Seder night. Plus, we'll also share extra tips and tricks for how to manage the timings within your own family's dynamic. Let's make this Pesach as smooth and enjoyable as possible!

Please note - all timings are for Borehamwood/Greater London 

Thursday 10th April

• Fast of the firstborn (because there but for the grace of Hashem went we).

• Do Bedikat Chametz (the search for chametz) after 8:25pm.

Friday 11th April

• Any chametz you will not be eating on Shabbat (see below) should be given to a foodbank, burned, or sold before Shabbat, before 11:54am. 

  • The Kehillat Nashira form for selling chametz closes on Wednesday night, 9th April.

• If you’re eating challah on Shabbat (see below) have only the amount that you will be able to finish on Shabbat (more on this below) and keep this all together in one place.

• Biur Chametz (burning chametz) - Any chametz that was found during Bedikat Chametz, which you have not sold, should be burned on Friday. morning by 11.54am. After the chametz has been burnt, we do not make the declaration “Kol Chamira” as we can still eat chametz throughout Shabbat.

• The house should be Pesach-ready before Shabbat comes in, and the Shabbat meals should be Kosher for Pesach.

• Kitniyot is fine for Ashkenazim on the Shabbat before Pesach! This can be cooked in Pesachdik pans, just make sure not to eat leftovers once Pesach is in. 

• Light a 3-day candle before Shabbat, to be used, when needed, over Yom Tov.

• Melacha - breaking Shabbat - for the Seder cannot begin before Shabbat is out, so as much Seder preparation as possible should be done before Shabbat (see below for what can be done on Shabbat).

Shabbat 12th April

Hamotzi on Shabbat

There are two options for making hamotzi on a Shabbat which is erev Pesach:

1. Recommended for simplicity and stress-reduction: Be completely ready for Pesach before Shabbat comes in and use “Matza Ashira” (often called egg matza/matza made with juice) for all Shabbat meals. This is actually not matza that Ashkenazim can eat on Pesach itself (unless elderly or unwell), so put it away before Shabbat is out. 

Or

2. Set aside a small amount of challah for Friday night and Shabbat morning to be used for hamotzi. Any leftovers thrown away outside your home before Pesach. 

   
   

Since the last time to eat chametz is 10:45am on Shabbat morning, some shuls are meeting early to allow time to eat challah afterwards. 

By 11:53am all chametz remnants should be out of the home, and at this point, say your verbal declaration of nullification of chametz (this can be found in many Siddurim and all Machzorim).

First night Seder - 12th April

Saturday night Seder with little children / elderly guests 

Our halachic sources encourage us to have seder night after nightfall (8:41pm in Borehamwood this year) because key aspects of the Pesach story happened at night. 

There is a certain memorable magic in giving children a nap in the day, only to be woken for a late night seder. If you are a parent and this is possible, I’d encourage you to try to have the full late-night experience.

The early kids seuda-seder hack

If you have little children where a nap and late night simply won’t work, but adult guests who can stay up late, treat your kids to a seuda-seder during Shabbat. Give them egg matza, grape juice and dinner at their usual time, sing all the songs, make it fun for them and have them tucked into bed in time for adults to start seder after 8:41pm (or stay awake for as long as they can with the adults).

Check out some brilliant resources and ideas for giving kids a magical Pesach from PJ Library.

Early seder for adults 

Nevertheless, there are certain extenuating circumstances where halacha can flex, and adults in a tight spot could start seder early. This would include:

• Elderly or unwell attendees who can’t stay up late.

• Shalom bayit (peace between a couple) being compromised or serious friction within a family.

• If the post-nightfall timings would exclude someone’s participation.

  
  

Timings for extenuating circumstances on first night:

• You can start seder from 7:53pm (shkiya).

• Seder begins with kiddush, which includes havdallah. You'll need to make kiddush with havdalah but without the havdalah candle and without the bracha of boreh moreh haesh. It would be ideal if you can make this an educational moment and point out that shabbat is still in.

• You can't light candles or do melacha ("work") until shabbat is out at 8:41pm (tzeit) but can pause seder to light candles at this point, with the bracha... but without shecheyanu as you've already said that with kiddush.

• The very earliest time you can eat matza and marror is 8:41pm.

• If you’ve read through magid by 8:41pm, there are a few key parts to repeat after that (see below).

• Try to have 4 cups of wine after 8:41pm, even if you've had 1 or 2 earlier.

  
  

Preparing for first night Seder during Shabbat

• From 6:26pm (plag hamincha) you can set the table and do other non-melacha preparations (this does not violate the prohibition to prepare on Shabbat for after Shabbat since you are setting the table for the seder which you are beginning during Shabbat). 

• Do not do any food preparation, including reheating, until sunset, 7:51pm, (since you will not be eating the food until it is nightfall and this would violate the prohibition of preparation on Shabbat for after Shabbat).

• You can however prepare any food, like karpas (including a karpas “course” of veggies to be dipped in things) if this will be eaten while it’s still Shabbat. 

• After sunset, 7:51pm, you can reheat fully cooked solid foods, as you would usually heat food on Shabbat.

• Only after nightfall, 8:41pm can you use a flame and cook food / re-heat liquids.

Second night Seder - Sunday 13th April

Timings for extenuating circumstances on second night

• Second night is a Rabbinic rather than Torah-level mitzvah. Usually we treat it with the same strictness as 1st night, but in the extenuating circumstances listed above, we can start seder from sunset (shkiya) rather than nightfall (tzeit), meaning:

• You can have matza, marror and say the key parts of magid after 7:55pm (shkiya).

• Pause seder to light candles at 8:46pm (tzeit) with the bracha... but without shecheyanu as you've already said that with kiddush.

• Try to have 4 cups of wine after 7:55pm, even if you've had 1 or 2 earlier.

Preparing for second night Seder during first day yom tov

• You can prepare and cook any food that will be eaten while it’s still first day yom tov, on first day yom tov.

• So you can set the table for Seder night while it’s still yom tov, but only if your seder will begin before 8:46pm.

• However you cannot prepare for, or cook for, the second seder night during first day chag, where you’ll only be benefiting from this after nightfall.

Key parts of the hagaddah that should be repeated after nightfall if you've said them earlier

- The ma nishtana section - this can be a single reading by one person without all the production

- The first line of avadim hayinu 

- The line mitchila ovdei avodah

- From tzei ulemad through to after the acronym summary of the 10 Plagues

Then continue from where you left off - either from Rabban Gamliel or, if you haven’t got to that yet, from wherever you are up to.

It’s a complex one, people, but you’ve got this, and Pesach is totally worth all the work!

Please get in touch if I can help answer questions for your own specific circumstances or alternatively, join our Pesach Q&A WhatsApp group.

With thanks to Rabbi Jack Cohen for kindly allowing me to adapt his motzei Shabbat Pesach advice, and to Rabbi Dov Linzer for his detailed teshuva on starting Seder early.