What is the secret for a successful and meaningful Pesah Seder? What do you have to do to have a very enjoyable moment with your children and family members, while learning about our history and identity?
The 'secret' for the Pesah Seder could be summarize with these three words: "Preparation. Preparation. Preparation."
Let me explain.
1. Write an email/text/whatsapp TODAY asap to each member of your family. Assign to each one of them one part of the Hagada. Ask them to be ready to read and/or explain at least one short text of the Hagada in Hebrew, English, etc... The little ones should be prepared to read, sing, explain 'ma nishtana' or 'abadim hayinu' or 'had gadya'. Ask the teenagers to search online about one particular text or idea of the hagada (=Pesah, matza, maror, 4 cups, eating reclined, haroset, etc.). Encourage them to search in:www.torah.org, aish.com, ou.org, etc, for material related to the idea they read.
2. Make it fun: Ask the funniest guys of the family to play some parts of the Hagada. You must have a play for the Ten Plagues: Somebody (a more serious guy) explains briefly each plague and the actors play the play. You must have at least one person playing Moshe (his head covered with a Talit) and somebody starring as Par'o... (use your imagination...) Make it visual. Buy plastic frogs, animal masks for deber and ping pong balls for hail. Another group should play the four sons. Encourage the 4 sons to briefly debate among themselves about one past/present subject: for example, Although they were only a small minority, the Egyptians feared that the Jews were "too powerful for us." (Ex. 1:10). Although Jews make us less than 3% of the American population Atlantic Magazine's "50 Most Influential Commentators in America" included 26 Jews. Are Jews too powerful? Not powerful enough? Is "Jew's influence" just an excuse to justify anti-Semitism? Should we keep it all to ourselves?
3. Educate with fun: Have games for the children, a Pesah treasure hunt or Pesah trivia. You MUST see THIS and THIS. Have 20 questions ready, and most importantly 20 (or more) small prizes. So anytime the Seder is about to get out of control, or boring or you want everybody's attention you can shoot one of your questions (show the prize first!). Guaranteed to work... or your money back!
Shabbat Shalom!
Candle-lighting in NYC: 6:50 pm
Shabbat ends in NYC : 7:51 pm
To download the list of Products for Pesah 2013 click here
For Minhaguim of Sefirat ha'Omer see THIS
For Sefirat ha'Omer app for your Iphone, Ipad click here
For Sefirat ha'Omer reminder app for your android see this
For MYC email reminder for Sefirat ha'Omer click here