Children ages four to 16 spoke in a cacophony of voices on one rosy spring morning in Wilkes-Barre, all clamoring to ask and answer The Four Questions for Rabbi Larry Kaplan.
“Why on all other nights can we sit up or recline, but on this night we only recline,” asked nine-year-old Jack Yelen last Sunday at Temple Israel.
Rabbi Kaplan repeated the fourth question of the Haggadah, the book Jews read from during the Passover Seder.
“How many times are you able to sit for dinner and kind of lay down while you're sitting?" said Rabbi Kaplan.
His son, Carter, piped up that he’s allowed to sit slouched every night at the dinner table.
“Where are you eating dinner?” the rabbi asked his son sarcastically. “Obviously, you’re not allowed to do that.”
Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, is a holiday for questions. It celebrates the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt and is observed in early spring from the 15th to the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan.
Last night, millions of jews supped on charoset, a delicious paste of nuts, pears, apples and wine; matzah and four cups of wine for the first night of Passover. This year’s holiday begins on Saturday, April 12, and lasts until Sunday, April 20.
Before holding this year’s Seder dinner at the Friedman Jewish Community Center in Kingston, Gerri Kaplan hosted a “A Taste of Passover” at the temple last Sunday to teach kids the importance of Passover to Judaism’s history.
Tables around the temple’s meeting room featured a charoset-making station, matzah of all different varieties — including chocolate-covered — and grape juice in place of wine.
A child’s four questions
The Four Questions (Ma Nishtana) are traditionally read aloud by the youngest member of the family. As the youngest who rarely stopped talking, it was my favorite part of the Seder.
Each question follows the same structure: “What makes this night different from all other nights?”
1. On all nights we need not dip even once, on this night we do so twice?
2. On all nights we eat bread or matzah, and on this night only matzah?
3. On all nights we eat any kind of vegetables, and on this night maror (bitter herbs)?
4. On all nights we eat sitting upright or reclining, and on this night we all recline?
Rabbi Kaplan explained the significance of what’s on the Seder plate. Charoset, for example, represents the mortar used to build pyramids.
“So, you never want to eat [charoset] with chopped liver. Why not? You never want to eat that because you're gonna end up with ‘charos-is of the liver’,” the Rabbi joked.
After snack time, Sofia Bloom held up a piece of chocolate-covered matzah in one hand and four fingers to show her age in the other. She proudly shared what she’s been learning.
“A lotta Hebrew,” she said.
Rabbi Kaplan said Passover empowers kids to ask questions and learn about their history.
“And one of the differences in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew Bible, is that around the story of Passover, there are a number of times where we're commanded to have an answer about historical things that have happened to the Jewish people,” said Kaplan.
For Rabbi Kaplan, the temple’s “A Taste of Passover” reflects the congregation and larger Jewish community’s changing needs.
Jewish religious schools have held model Seders, which focus on teaching kids how to follow the order of the Seder dinner for years, he said. The word ‘Seder’ translates to order. Chabad describes its complex structure as “a 15-step choreographed combination of tastes, sounds, sensations and smells that have been with the Jewish people for millennia.”
But as many families shift towards secularism and people have less time to hold the Seder long into the night, (it is not unheard of to pray until sunrise), Rabbi Kaplan explained families are finding ways to get their kids more involved in the Seder.
“Nobody seems to complain that it doesn't go to one in the morning … and they feel comfortable being able to bring their kids,” said Kaplan.
'Hope for the future'
The local Jewish community is also changing.
More Jews are moving into the area, especially in Kingston, the Back Mountain and Mountain Top in Luzerne County, said Rabbi Kaplan.
“The influx of Chabad, the ultra orthodox into the town has also changed things. We now have a kosher supermarket right here, which was unheard of … it’s changed the dynamics a little bit,” said Rabbi Kaplan. "However, at the very same time, we've had an influx of young [Jewish] families ... that are not part of the old Jewish Orthodox.”
Kingston Kosher Grocery and neighboring Bagel Bar both sell kosher products to the local Jewish community.
He said those changes give him hope for the future.
“We were having sessions at our board meetings, wondering how long are we going to be able to last. Everyone's 80 years old, and now we've got a full contingent here at our religious school, and kids running around and actually coming to services on Shabbat morning. We love it, so we're going to hope that it stays for a while … As long as these families are able to stay in town, we're gonna end up with more bar and bat mitzvahs than we've had before, and I think that bodes well for everybody,” said Rabbi Kaplan.
Passover fun
Besides tasting different foods, Temple Israel’s newest generation of soon-to-be-bat-mitzvah’ed girls shared their favorite part of Passover: finding the afikomen.
The afikomen is a piece of matzah that is wrapped in a cloth and hidden somewhere nearby the Seder. The word translates to “that which comes after” and is supposed to give kids something to look forward to so they stay focused during the dinner.
Talia Kenewell, 12, Zoey Belzer, 11, Kasey Whalen, 11 and Eden Dicton, 10, compared their scores in finding the matzah at previous Seders.
“[Passover] is very fun, because I like eating … and it’s very fun to learn about too,” said Zoey. “The matzah is like that (unleavened) because it did not have enough time to rise before we left [Egypt].”
“I find it at my [family’s] Seder, but I’ve never really found it here,” said Kasey.
“I found it here [at Temple Israel] once, last year,” said Zoey.
“At my grandma and poppy’s Seder, there’s always enough for, like, every kid. So, then nobody fights and we all get money,” Kasey added excitedly.
Kids usually get a stuffed animal or a couple of bucks for finding the afikomen. During last Sunday’s search, around 30 kids ran around the temple in pure pandemonium. Only one could be the winner.
But those kids got a second shot at finding the afikomen last night at the Friedman JCC’s Passover.
What’s on your Seder plate?
- Charoset: a delicious medley of apples, pears, nuts and wine. It represents the mortar enslaved Jews used to build pyramids
- Egg or beitzah: a hard-boiled egg represents the cycle of life
- Shank bone or zeroah: represents the sacrifice of a lamb on the eve of the exodus from Egypt
- Bitter herbs or maror: represents the bitterness of slavery. It’s usually present as horseradish.
- Vegetable or karpas: parsley is a common choice for the vegetable. It is dipped into salt water to represent the pain of slavery.
