The "Children's" Holiday

There's a story that a group of survivors from one of the camps got

together for their first Seder after the holocaust.  Everything went

well; there was plenty of food, wine, and matzoh were available to
them.  They gladly, again, celebrated “freedom.”  But then they got to

the point in the Haggadah where the children ask the four famous

questions to their parents.  And there were no kids, no parents, no
family --- just a group of survivors.  They all started to cry.  They

cried for the children they lost and for their parents that were

murdered.  They were about to skip this section and move on to the
next paragraph in the Haggadah, when one particular survivor stood up
in a shaky voice and shouted, “We are not kids, we have no relatives

that are kids, but on Pesach we are all children, G‑d’s children.”
They all started to recite the “Ma Nishtanah” while crying.

Pesach is known as very family oriented holiday.  The traditional
pesach food fits perfectly with the magical family atmosphere.  It is
a holiday that is difficult to celebrate without the warmth of a
family.  If we look however carefully at the original source in the

Torah regarding the mitzvah of the Seder, it is clear that the Seder

revolves around children.  The word “Haggadah” comes from the
commandment “You should tell your son” to tell the story of the exodus

to the children.  The Seder is a method to pass the message of Judaism
and our traditions to the next generation.  This makes the Seder a

very important time to focus on our children.  But there may be
another aspect to the "children's" holiday -

I recently have been preparing groups of children for their Bar
Mitzvah and have observed something that we as adults should learn

from them --- the very same children that many complain “that the
children today are so terrible…"  But I have found so much good in
their childish excitement:  their open minds ready to really
understand things, their authentic sincerity, and their curiosity.  It

is true that Pesach is a holiday for the children, but not only
children in age.
 

Pesach is the holiday which is supposed to make us the children - with
the same excitement to eat the matzoh (If you don’t have Shmurah
Matzoh please contact me to get some!), with the same sincerity to
explore the story of the exodus, and the same sincerity to truly
experience and connect to our beautiful heritage (with four cups of
wine or grape juice), and with the “childish” curiosity to understand
the deeper meaning of the our customs.  With love and optimism we sing
joyous Jewish songs to connect to G‑d and to ourselves, and then we
can ease our cynicism because on Pesach we are all children, G‑d’s
children.  Happy Pesach “kids”!   A Happy and Kosher Passover to all!


Rabbi Tenenboim is the is the spiritual leader of the new Jewish Center  - "chabad of Hewlett" and can be contacted at [email protected] or 516-537-8770www.JewishHewlett.com