Five full days in a row at the Jewish Enrichment Center always leads to something new and special, and this past week was no different.
Each day this past week was centered around one of the four names of passover: חג המצות (Chag haMatzot- Matzah Holiday) , חג האביב(Chag Heaviv – Spring Holiday) , זמן חרותינו, (Zeman Cheruteinu – Time of our Freedom) and of course, חג הפסח (Chag Hapesach – Passover).
We book ended the week with חג המצות (Chag haMatzot- Matzah Holiday) , first spending a day learning about matzah’s history and journey from something handmade by individuals and communities to something massed produced, year-round, by factories. On that day, some children invended at “Matzah Maker 3000”–a model of a matzah factory they’d learned about. Then they made the following advertisement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaA1NSJGEQM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7abUS34k7Sc
On Friday, already experts in the relative benefits of machine-made versus hand-made matzah, we tried our hand with both, spending the morning making our own matzah together! The children noticed how quick and easy it was, how different each of their matzah’s looked, and how much fun it was. But they still stood by the arguments in favor of mass-produced matzah–time saving, easy distribution, and more consistent. Some of them barely even recognized our matzah as matzah!
Most exciting about both of these days was watching children help each other out and learn from each other across age-groups. Anafim, Shorashim, Shteelim AND Nitzanim came together all week to help each other out, share ideas, and try new things!
