By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
SAN DIEGO–Some of our seder customs were originally introduced to help children pay attention during the service (for example the youngest child asking the Four Questions and the hide and seek game played with the afikoman). Over the years most of us have found it is just as challenging to keep the adults involved!
What follows is an activity that we have often used at our sedarim to good result. It is easy to plan and execute and helps liven things up!
What we call the “Four Questions” are not questions at all. In fact, there is only one question – “How is this night different than all other nights?” – and four answers:
1. On all other night we eat either bread or matza, tonight only matza.
One easy activity is to ask your guests why our meal is distinguished by the four peculiarities above (“we eat matza because our ancestors left Egypt in haste,” etc.)
But you can also use this opportunity to have some fun by going around the table and asking everyone at your seder to volunteer additional answers to the Haggadah’s question: “Why is this night different than all other nights?”
At our sedarim we have heard answers as diverse as:
1. On all other nights we only have five people at our table, tonight we have 57.
As you can see, sometimes participants contribute serious answers, and at other times we all laugh…and that is fine.
Sedarim should not be perfunctory and boring. They should be opportunities for celebration, not just our ancestors’ exodus from Egypt, but for the ability to share happy and meaningful times (not to mention good food!) with family and friends.
If you play this game at your seder and receive some great answers, please email them to me at rabbi@tiferethisrael.com. I will publish the best ones next week!
I wish you and your families a chag sameach v’kasher, a happy, Kosher, and meaningful Passover.
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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue. He may be contacted, per above, at rabbi@tiferethisrael.com