April 25, 2005
Passover dinner
Passover is a very important holiday in Israel. Scott got a day off work and Tyler had many activities at pre-school leading up to Passover and then he had a week off.
One of the things Tyler got to do was make a Haggaddah, which is the story of the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The Haggaddah is read during the Seder, the Passover dinner. Below is Tyler's coloring of Moses parting the Red Sea. Tyler's pre-school teachers were very thoughtful and sent Tyler home with a video about Moses so we could talk about it with him in English. They wanted to make sure that he understood the story.
Moses parting the Red Sea (coloring by Tyler)
A few days before Passover, Tyler had a Seder dinner (actually lunch) at school. They ate some of the traditional foods and read the Haggaddah. One of the traditions of the Passover dinner is to leave a cup for Elijah on the table. Each child got a cup for Elijah and a bottle of kid's wine (some non-alcoholic juice).
Tyler with Elijah's cupThe teachers at pre-school love Brooke. They often ask why she isn't in pre-school yet! They gave Brooke her own bottle of kid's wine when she and Tiffany came to pick up Tyler from school.
Brooke with her kid's wineOn Friday evening before the start of Passover, Scott's manager called him at home. Scott initially thought there was some problem at work, but actually his manager, Baruch, called to invite us to Passover dinner on Saturday evening.
We met Baruch and his family at his house and then followed them to Petach Tikva where his mother lives. We were a little nervous because we were joining the Seder of Baruch's mother, his siblings and their families. They were all very nice and welcoming.
One of the traditions of Passover dinner is that each child gets presents. Tyler was thrilled that they thought to get him a toy. He loves his toy helicopter and has kept it in his bed since Passover! Brooke got a frog toy for the bathtub.
Tyler with his new toyBefore dinner, we socialized and the children played. Fortunately, Baruch's family all speaks English very well. There were also children Brooke's age and Tyler's age for them to play with.
For some reason, Brooke insisted on sitting in her booster seat all evening. We didn't mind; she had lots of fun playing with Mega-blocks, and it kept her from disturbing the older kids.
Brooke playing before dinnerSince Baruch is the oldest male member in his family, he led the reading of the Haggaddah. It is in Hebrew, but they had some copies with both English and Hebrew. There are specific places during the program to eat and drink. They were thoughtful and set out grape juice, instead of wine, for us. We ate lettuce dipped in salt to remind us of the tears of the slaves and bitter herbs to remind us of the bitterness of captivity. Matza (unleavened bread) is broken and a piece is hidden for the children to find later in the night. We should note that Matza (Matzot - plural) is more like a cracker than the unleavened bread we would think of. We also ate Matza ball soup, fish, chicken and other traditional foods.
We went through each of the ten plagues and listened to other things about the flight from Egypt. We also opened the door for Elijah. Fortunately, both Tiffany and Tyler had learned the Passover songs, so we were able to join in on the songs. Tiffany learned from her Hebrew teacher and Tyler from pre-school.
We should have taken more pictures of the dinner, but all we have of the dinner itself is Tiffany singing and Brooke plugging her ears.
Singing Passover songsWe left Baruch's mother's apartment at midnight. There was lots of traffic on the roads. After we spent half an hour, nearly motionless, on one highway, Baruch suggested that we find another way. So we got off the highway and followed Baruch as we wound our way over to another highway. We finally got home at 3 am. We were lucky though, we found out that the first highway had been shutdown and didn't open back up until 4 am! It was a long, but wonderful evening. We enjoyed experiencing a traditional Passover Seder. We were very glad that Scott had the next day off of work. We were even more glad that our children slept in so we could too.
Tyler-isms:
"I walked to Grandpa and Grandma's in America, then I drove with Mom and Dad on a Passover trip." - What Tyler told his pre-school teachers that he did during his Passover vacation.
"It's like Matzot" - saltine crackers
Brooke-isms:
"Vroom" - car sound