How to educate? ­– such a classical question!
A genuine educational specialist might basically refer us in response, time and again, to the ultimate solution: personal example!

 

So how may we educate and inspire our youngsters to flourish, grow-up, overcome obstacles and get freed of bondage?
And truly, what were the stories we have heard from our parents (or onther significant adult) which actually influenced us the most?

​

Last Passover we had special Sedders where we had magic moments of intimacy and bonding with the children and the whole family and friends. We had indeed such exciting experience that still echoes in our hearts.

 

It started right after The Four Questions – when each and every child were given, in turns, the opportunity to ask a fifth, more personal question. The child was given a golden (real cool) ring, called The Maggid Ring, that indicated its his or her own time to speak now, and then everyone would listen to the child's personal question or wish that was pre-prepared (of something that really intrigues the child or about something from the child's wishing list). The grownups were fully attentive in those moments and when the round was up, a second round started where the children switched onto a listening mode and the children's parents answered each child's personal question. The answers were given with earnestness, candor and care the children could really tell. It actually made a difference for them (and to us) all night long!

 

Afterwards, Leil-Hasedder's ceremony continued as every year, yet once in a while we would pause (pre-planned) for a couple of minutes to enable one of us to reveal to the children a personal experience of inner or outer liberation of bondage or some kind of personal liberation. The sharing was linked in some way to the passage of the Haggadah that we were reading at that moment. Actually, each of us had prepared a personal experience that felt right to share that evening. One guest claimed he had nothing meaningful to share, but suddenly, right after counting the Ten Plagues, he recalled some amazing experience he had where he was rescued in the last moment after all chance of getting saved had expired. Listening to his personal amazing true story was so moving!

​

The most beautiful part of the whole process was that the children actually listened! (Yeh, the teenagers and all the young generation too!!) Till these very days they still remember those stirring and touching personal stories and also (for sure) they mention with enthusiasm the majestic golden ring that made clear they are been heard attentively.

​

As for me, I still crystally clear remember one special moment from these Passover nights where I looked and saw the children's eyes looking up to their dad sharing his own personal moving moment of liberation. I'll never forget this moment!

​

Some of us were really thrilled to know that such a Revelation Ceremony (in Hebrew: Sedder Ha'Gaddah, that how such a special event in the Sedder is called) has its origin in one of the proverbial Biblical verses that all Passover Night is based upon (Exodus, 8, 13). The mundane reading of the Hebrew word Ve'higadta in that verse (i.e., you shall tell your child [the story of Exodus]) was recently deciphered by The Innocent Reading system as meaning in Biblical Hebrew: you shall reveal to your child [your own personal release out of a dilemma]. So, as a matter of fact, this Revelation Ceremony is (or originally was) one of the cornerstones of Passover Nights since Biblical times.

​

Anyway, the familial dynamics in this year's Passover Nights was by far the most meaningful for years, it drowned us closer together and made us a much a tighter-bounded family, even though some of the family members are not used to meet more than couple of times a year.

So, instead of having our eyes wandering along the Passover Manual (or to a smart screen) we actually looked inside each other's eyes meeting the personal and humane facets behind and within, bonding with one another, family and friends alike.

​

I can already envision how our next Passover will be and I can't wait – we will all await for the moment it is our turn to share within the familial circle, around the Sedder's table, our new liberation experiences accumulated during the year.
As for myself, I look forward to see how my children's eyes meet their father's gaze with sparkling eyes.

 

One thought to sum up with:
I wonder what if when we were young, we would hear every year, around the Passover table, our parents' own personal liberation experiences? What kind of grownups could we become?

 

Personal example, as alluded above, is certainly the best way to educate.

​

==================================================================

​

Do you want to be one of the 100 families that will celebrate this Passover with The Family Kit? 

- only this week (5 days left) - we have untill March 1, 2020 to hit the 100 kits goal!
In order to support our crawdfunding campaign on Indiegogo - Click here!