As Anafim (“Branches” for 2nd and 3rd grade) slides into week three of our Pesach (Passover) preparation, the creative frenzy has not faltered. After years of learning about Pesach, these Anafimers know their stuff and are excited to share their ideas and explore new ones about Pesach.
Anafimers are hard at work in the studio, where they’re finishing up matzah bags that show the ideas that two rabbis from the Talmud — Rav and Shmuel — had about how to tell the story of Pesach in a seder. We learned last week that the Mishnah says to start the seder by telling about the “hard stuff” and end with the “awesome stuff.” Shmuel says that the “hard stuff” was that the Israelites were slaves and that the “awesome stuff” was that Adonai freed them. Rav thought that the “hard stuff” was that the Israelites worshipped idols and the “awesome stuff” was that they started worshipping Adonai.
Children are cutting and gluing felt on their matzah bags to show each rabbi’s idea. For the Shmuel side, they’re showing the passage from slavery to freedom. For the Rav side, they’re showing a time in their own lives that they changed their mind about something big.
Back in Beit Anafim, children are hard at work on self-directed choices exploring Exodus 1-15. Some children are writing stories that tell Exodus 1-15 from the perspective of Pharaoh or other Egyptians, some are working together to make a poster about the 10 plagues, and some are building to show their ideas about Exodus 1-15.
What a thought-provoking and deeply reflective exploration of Pesach we’ve had together!
