Passover for Families

Passover Plague Puppets - Download the template here

Telling the Story

For our children to talk about: Pretend you were a slave in Egypt. What is your worst memory of slavery? What do you hope for most in freedom? Did you ever think you would be free? How do you think it happened? What makes you feel sad or mad today? What do you do when you have those feelings?

Another way to tell the story: Think of a person or object in the Exodus story. Retell part of the story from that character's or prop's point of view. For example, what might it have been like to be a child walking through the water walls of the Sea of Reeds? What did it feel like to be the basket in which Moses floated down the Nile River? How did a frog understand what was happening during the plague? (Here's a list of possible people and objects: Miriam, Aaron, Pharaoh's Daughter, A Slave, Moses, Pharaoh, A Taskmaster, Matzah, Moses' Rod, Miriam's Timbral.)

More Fun Ideas for Children or Adults: When I heard I would be free, I sent a text message to my friend. I told her I was feeling________________________, and that the first thing I would do as a free person is_____________________________.

• Imagine you are an Israelite living next door to an Egyptian family. When they ask you why you are painting lamb’s blood on your doorframe, what do you tell them? What feelings of theirs do you want to be sensitive to?
• Now that you have been freed from Egypt, you want to tell everyone about this amazing event. You decide to post something to Instagram to help other people relate to what you went through. What would you post?
• You are one of Moses’ advisors. Moses senses the slaves are tired of taking orders and as they become free don’t want too many rules imposed on them. How do you recommend Moses explain the Ten Commandments to the newly freed Israelite slaves?

Physical and Spiritual Enslavement

For Children: Collect a bag of props, silly clothes, toys, and household items. Ask each child to reach into the bag, select an item or two.

Ask the children to act out being a character in the Passover story and guess who they are pretending to be. (Roles can include Moses, Pharaoh, Taskmaster, Slave, God, Miriam, Pharaoh’s Daughter, etc.)

Thought question: If you had to leave home quickly, just like the slaves did, what would you take with you?

For Everyone: Pretend you were a slave in Egypt. What is your worse memory of slavery? What do you hope most for in freedom? Did you ever think you would be freed? How do you think it happened?

How would you answer this question: Can you describe a time when you didn’t have your smart phone with you and really missed it? Can you describe a time when you had your smart phone with you and missed out on something else?

The Four Children...and their parents: We’re spending a lot of quality time together in close quarters these days. So let’s learn about ourselves. Ask children and adults what adjective they would use to describe themselves? Ask them why. If safe, ask someone who knows them, and who will be kind toward them, to choose a different adjective in response to what they said.

A Yahatz/Afikomen Idea: Tell all of the children to break their own piece of Matzah, wrap it up in an extra napkin and place it in a paper bag. Before Seder be sure to write each child’s name on a bag. Then place their bag into a big Afikomen sack.

Secret: If you are together with the children this year, before the Seder hide a different paper bag with each child’s name on it and with half a piece of matzah wrapped in a napkin inside it around the house. At some point, get up from the table and tell them you are hiding their bags/pieces for them to find later on. When it is time to find the Afikomen, ask the children to find the bag with their name on it, and help others to find theirs. Use the “real” Afikomen you made to end the Seder. Don’t give away the secret of your magic trick!