My husband and I hosted the second night seder this year. Even though I don’t cook and can’t read the Hebrew in the Haggadah well enough to lead, I do know this: Seders should be fun and engaging for the kiddos, and we each need to see ourselves as though we were slaves in Egypt, journeying across a desert to freedom.
I found an idea online that would fulfill both of those mitzvot, and I set to work. It took multiple trips to my local crafting store (I know, I know, the sacrifices we Jewish mothers make for our children), spent far too much time watching YouTube videos on how to fold paper pyramids, and made several mildly frantic phone calls to local Judaica and general tchotchke shops looking for a Moses action figure, but it all came together in the end. (You can see the details of the last-minute Moses delivery over on my Instagram account.)
The girls and I were up early on Saturday morning, gathering cushions for each chair and searching the toy bin for wild beasts and Israelites. Once the table was set up with the pyramids of Egypt at one end and Moses leading his people to freedom on the other end, I sat back to admire our creation.
As I was looking at our motley crew of fleeing Israelites—Playmobil mothers pushing babies in small plastic strollers, a large plastic grandmother who bears an uncanny resemblance to Barbara Bush, a small rubber Princess Ariel figurine, a young boy wearing a tiny soccer jersey, a plastic police man and robber, and a duck, because of course, a duck—I realized something.
The rest of this post is now up on Kveller.com.
