Pesach Conversation Starters

During the second hour of Senior School, all our grade 6, 8, 9, and 10 students came together for a program in preparation for Pesach, focusing on the Seder. Family seders are often a celebration of family tradition, and many families conduct the seder ‘the way that zaidy did it’ many years ago.  The Passover seder is about asking questions, giving answers and telling stories.  We looked at a few parts of the seder last night, and asked our students to think of ways to add new discussion, questions and content to their seder.  We hope that you can use some of the ideas they came up with in your upcoming seders, and wish you all a Chag Pesach Sameach!

 Ma Nishtanah

The seder is all about questions – what are some new relevant questions that you would like answers to? Here is what our students asked:

Is it all just a fairytale?

How do we know it’s real?

Did Moses actually exist?

What actually happened?

Why do we have two seders here but only one in Israel?

Do people actually believe in this stuff, and if so, what’s the proof?

Why is the seder so long?

What’s with the 10 Plagues?

Did the sea actually split?

How old was Moses when he received the 10 Commandments?

How did the angel know to pass over the houses with the lamb’s blood?

What was the Egyptian side of the story?

What is the current political situation in Israel?

The four questions seem irrelevant. Why aren’t we asking more important questions?

Why only during the Passover seder can we sit reclined?

Think of the slaves who are becoming free

The 10 Plagues

This is a list of modern day concerns that continue to ‘plague’ our society, generated by our students. You may consider adding some of these to the plagues you recite on seder night:

Zika, Ebola, Cholera, Malaria, Flu, H1N1, ISIS, Homophobia, AIDS, TB, MS, Scarlet fever, Overdosing and addiction, Cancer, Asbestos, Suicide, Depression, Anorexia and bulimia, Poverty, STDs, Earthquakes, Global warming, Diseases, Droughts, Sexism, Racism, Hurricanes

The 4 Children

What personality traits do 21^st century children have?  Here’s what was suggested:

smart, slow, don’t fit in, ‘wannabe’, stuck-up, funny,  popular, advanced, selfish, invisible, childish behavior

The Seder Plate

Family seders are often rich with family tradition. What would you add to your own seder plate to express that tradition?

Have a vegetarian version of the seder plate

Bread, as a reminder of what we cannot have

Coloured jellybeans to represent the different cultures and types of people at the seder and in the world

Orange to represent feminism