Mock Seder!

Dear all

What a glorious Sunday!  I certainly hope your kids digest with you our weekly Sunday school, and at least shared one golden nugget they learned about Pesach.  If they didn't yet, then prod them!  We did A LOT this past Sunday; it should have oiled their wheels on some level for our upcoming big holiday.

Before I get into the recap, please note that next time we meet for school isn't until Sunday, April 24.  However, TNS has Pesach services, so do come, help make a minyan, and expose your pre-bnei mitzvah kids to the Shabbat and Saturday morning services - 
April 15/16 and April 22/23 - Pesach Services
April 16 led by Saeed Niku.  April 23 with Yizkor led by Rabbi Micah.

Also, save the date for the following:
Sunday, May 15 - Community School Session (on Israel) at CBD

Saturday, May 21 - 9:30am Shabbat Service (with Baby Naming) 
Saturday, May 21-Sunday, May 22- Lag BaOmer Family Camp Out at JCC Property (evite forthcoming)

Now, the recap from yesterday!  We started off the morning with Rabbi Micah practicing (for at least a 3rd time) Ma Nishtanah with our kids, as well as a reminder of this beautiful holiday of freedom from slavery.  Then we showed a claymation film, The Animated Haggadah, which captivated all our kids.  You can stream it online free, so here's the link in case you missed it or want to view it at home again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayl3HlUSe1U

Then a shout out to Jake (who subbed for Michal), Joel, Amber, and Zoe who held down the fort with almost 30 children on their own.  We were a slim staff this week but made it work!  I know the kids learned even more about Pesach during class sessions....but, then mock seder time!  Eliana and Dinah helped me with matzoh ball soup and other preparations, as did Dafna, Drew, and Maxi. Thank you to all else who brought the seder items, including parsley, matzoh, horseradish, charoset, roasted beet, haggadot, and more. Rabbi Micah led the kids in sweeping out the chametz during kiddush snack, and then led all of us during our mock seder.  Next year in Jerusalem!  (And next year, we're talking about a parent adult ed talk for Micah to teach us in guiding us better in preparing ourselves and our families more intentionally for Passover)

Our mock seder was full of lots of Jewish/Passover goodies including matzoh ball soup, matzoh brei, gefilte fish (some kids really liked it!), macaroons, and hard-boiled eggs.  Aside from the food, Rabbi Micah guided us through traditional songs and blessings, and explained some of the why of what we do.  We dipped our fingers to recite the 10 plagues and broke the middle matzoh to find the 5 afikomens!  Shout out to Asher Storm who found the first one!  Here's evidence of some of our other afikomen locaters :)

So, a hearty chag pesach sameach to you and all your loved ones.  The Bandaris will be in Chicago starting at the end of the week through the seders, and then back in town for our second Pesach shabbat.  In the meantime, please read and hold Rabbi Micah's Passover message coming out this week (you can read it in advance here).   Lastly, please note our next school session will take place the Sunday before Yom HaShoah, so when we resume, we will be re-addressing a very serious subject.  On that note, if you would like to help efforts in Ukraine, our TNS family, the Kovens, are involved in and looking for support with this one relocating families to Romania:  Iași – The Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS - https://fjc-fsu.org/centers/iasi/

I wish you all a truly good yuntav and I look forward to seeing you again soon. 

Lauren

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