[Avodah] The Yeshivas and the Seder

[Samuel Svarc]

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 5:43 PM, Ira Tick <itick1986 at gmail.com> wrote:
> As to the general issue, children are inevitably--as they should
> be--educated in school about the story of the Exodus and about the laws and
> customs of the holiday, simply because of the role that schools occupy in
> our society, where parents have neither the time nor the expertise to
> be completely responsible for directing educating their children...
> issue seems to be whether or not young children need to be poised to learn
> all the tidbits of the seder itself--such as the many vignettes of the
> Haggadah, which barely touches upon the Chumash's account and focuses on
> specific lessons of Jewish history, survival, and cultural
> narrative.

'Punkt' these are harder to properly "give over". And not as
essential. Someone whose father really believes that God took us out
of Egypt and that we heard His voice on Mount Sinai will feel that by
the seder without any effort necessary. The way the father "breathes"
will reflect this, he can just stick to the Haggadah. No one will be
able to convince his children that such a tradition doesn't exist.
They might think it is mistaken, but they can never doubt its existence
after their father sat down at a table to say over the Haggadah to them
believing every word to be true. Nothing further is needed.

> Perhaps children should be "misdirected" to focus on aspects of
> the story that leave room for parents to discuss the significance of freedom
> and Hashem's hand in the world. A big part of V'Higadta is to make the story
> very personal--"This is what Hashem did for me," which only parents and
> caregivers can really impart to children.  Parents should discuss with their
> kids what it means to them to be free and part of Am Yisrael.

Above all the parents should make sure to focus on the mitzvos
'hayom'. Matza, marror, etc. and why we do it. One can survive without
hearing about "freedom" from their parents, but will not survive Jewishly
if they don't hear that we are Jews because God took us out of Egypt to
be His servants.

> Another important idea is to simply ask children questions.  Don't let them
> read off packets and sing song after song from class about plagues and such,
> but ask them specifically about what they've learned about specific parts of
> the story.  And ask them experiential questions, like what they think it
> would be like to be on scene when the events took place.

Very true, but we must remember the 'arbah bonim'; there are some children
that need coaching for questions as well, and that might need a totally
spoon fed experience.



On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 10:34 AM, <kennethgmiller at juno.com> wrote:
> My family has always read Maggid by going around the table, each person
> taking turns reading a paragraph at a time. I had always thought this
> to be a great
> idea, enabling everyone to do the mitzva of *telling* the story. But
> more and more, I'm coming to appreciate the price we're paying for it,
> in the loss of this
> parent to child mesora.

Speak to your 'moreh derech', but I think it can be said that the fact
that the father is officiating (and says the essential parts) is
sufficient for the mitzvah. As for the 'mesorah', if the father sat
down at the table to have a seder that is dedicated to Pesach that
seems like it is almost completely done without a word necessary.

-- 
KT,
MSS