passover seder tips
Seder is about telling. We tell the story of our people. We tell our own stories. This piece, by Rabbi Lisa Greene, could frame the telling of stories at the seder.
Maggid
With maggid we tell the story,
The exodus
From degradation to dignity,
M'g'nut l'shevach,
From slavery to freedom.
Each of us is to tell this story
and we who do so at length
are surely to be praised.
But this collective story
of the journey from slavery to freedom
is not the entirety of the tale.
Each of us bears our own
stories which relate our journeys,
our paths to freedom.
If each of us must relate our people's story
all the more so
should we be praised
for continuing the story
adding the individual strands
which make our identity,
which explain our journeys.
To journey is
to prepare,
to leave,
to travel,
to wander and wonder.
To journey is
to arrive,
to accustom,
to question,
to change,
to remain as we were,
yet touched by the journey.
What are our journeys
from slavery to liberation
from alienation to community
from afar to within
from foreign to familiar
from anxiety to comfort
from narrow spaces to expanse?
As we answer,
We continue maggid.
We tell our stories.
MAKING YOUR SEDER FUN AND MEANiNGFUL
Here are eight ways to make your seder meaningful:
Involve everyone in the planning & production: setting the table, cooking, finding fun ways to tell the story, practicing and leading the singing, learning/reviewing the Four Questions.
Make music with your voices or musical instruments. Who plays piano? Guitar? Violin? Clarinet? Be creative!
Ask Grandma Sadie or Aunt Sylvia to make their famous matzah kugel, gefilte fish or other delectable dish.
Questions? Add your own to the traditional four. Hint: think about what else is different about this night.
Stories-Add your family's journey to freedom or Passover stories to the Maggid (telling of the Exodus from Egypt).
Modern plagues-There are way too many of them in our world. Go around the table and ask each person to add to the list in the haggadah.
Open the door for Elijah all together.
Seder plates-Have one big seder plate on the table and then make individual ones for each person on a salad or dessert plate, with charoset, horseradish, parsley and an egg.
A Passover Skit
In Egypt the Jews ate quickly and anxiously because they were nervous about the plague of the first born and they were expecting their imminent departure into freedom. Today Jews of Africa and Asia customarily act out the Exodus itself dressing their children (or a dramatically inclined adult) in baggy clothes, a scarf or hat, hiking boots, a walking stick, a belt with a canteen and, most important, the afikoman wrapped in one's clothes on the shoulder (or perhaps in a back pack) .
Try sending the youngest children out of the room (or the house) with a bag of props and the help of an adult to prepare this dialogue. Here is a semi-traditional script that may be used by the "actors" at the seder.
Knock on the door
Adults: Who's there?
Children: Moshe, Aaron, and Miriam.
Adults: Come in. Tell us about your journey!
Children: We have just arrived from Egypt where we were slaves to Pharaoh. He made us do such hard work. (Improvise about how bad it was.)
Adults: How did you escape?
Children: God sent Moshe and Aaron to tell Pharaoh: "Let my people go". When he refused, God sent 10 plagues. (Improvise describing some of the plagues.) Finally God brought the most awful plague on the first born of Egypt. Then Pharaoh was really scared so he kicked us out.
Adults: Why are you dressed like that? What is on your shoulder?
Children: We escaped in the middle of the night and had no time to let the dough for our bread rise. The dough that we wrapped in our cloaks and slung over our shoulders turned to matza in the heat of the sun.
Adults: Tell us about your adventures.
Children: Pharaoh changed his mind after releasing us and chased us to the edge of the Red Sea. We would have been caught for sure, but then God split the sea. (Describe how it felt.)
Adults: Where are you going now?
Children: To Jerusalem.
All: La-shana ha-ba-ah Bee'Yerushalayeem!
