Creating Lively Passover Seders: A Sourcebook of Engaging Tales, Texts & Activities

by David Arnow

Overview

A guide to help you invigorate your Seder, create lively discussions and make personal connections with the Exodus story today.

For many people, the act of simply reading the Haggadah no longer fulfills the Passover Seder's purpose: to help you feel as if you personally had gone out of Egypt. Too often, the ritual meal has become predictable, boring and uninspiring.

Creating Lively Passover Seders, Second Edition, is an innovative, interactive guide to help encourage fresh perspectives and lively dialogue. With three new chapters, this intriguing Haggadah companion has been revised, updated and expanded, and offers thematic discussion topics, text study ideas, activities and readings that come alive in the traditional group setting of the Passover Seder. Each activity and discussion idea aims to:

• Deepen your understanding of the Haggadah
• Provide new opportunities for engaging the themes of the Passover festival
• Develop familiarity with the Exodus story, as well as the life and times of the people who shaped the development of the Haggadah

Reliving the Exodus is not about remembering an event long ago, but about participating in a conversation that provides hope and strength for the struggle to make tomorrow a brighter day. With this complete resource, you can create more meaningful encounters with Jewish values, traditions and texts that lead well beyond the Seder itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580234443
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	01/15/2011
Edition description:	2nd Edition, New
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	767,886
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

David Arnow, PhD, a psychologist by training, is widely recognized for his innovative work to make the Passover Seder a truly exciting encounter each year with Judaism's most central ideas. He has been deeply involved with many organizations in the American Jewish community and Israel and is a respected lecturer, writer, and scholar of the Passover Haggadah. He is coeditor of the two-volume My People’s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries, with Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD (Jewish Lights).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments to the Second Edition xi
Preface to the Second Edition xiii
Acknowledgments to the First Edition xv
Preface to the First Edition xvii
Introduction xix
How to Use This Book xxiii
A Few Words for Seder Leaders xxv
A Note on Rabbinic Literature, the Haggadah, and Translations xxvii

1
A Dish for the Ages: The Seder Plate 1
Confused? • Experiment with Your Plate • A Taste of History • Why Does This Plate Differ from That One?

2
The Long Road from Slavery to Freedom: From Ancient Egypt to Our Time 17
Slavery in Ancient Times • Exodus and the American Ethos • The Great Seal of the United States: Israelites Crossing the Red Sea versus a Pyramid • Former Slaves Speak • Let Freedom Ring: Historic Words on Freedom • Jewish Values and Social Justice:American Jews in the Antebellum South • Slavery in Our Time

3
The Four "Questions": Who's Asking What and Why? 37
Engaging Children during the Seder: An Ancient Lesson • Questions about Questions • The Greek Symposium and the Jewish Seder • Why These Particular Questions?

4
Passover After the Temple: From Sacrifice to Story 45
Judah the Prince and the Seder • Telling the Story: Some Ancient Advice • "The Medium Is the Message" • Taking Elaboration Seriously • Art Midrash:"Begin with Disgrace and End with Praise" • Crossing Rivers and Taking Responsibility

5
Five Super-Sages in B'nei B'rak 57
Five Super-Sages:Their Times and Teachings • Banning Rabbi Eliezer • Gamaliel’s Conspicuous Absence: Fingerprints on the Haggadah

6
The Four Children: A Seat at the Table for Everyone 67
The Four Children • Torah versus Haggadah • The Wise versus the Wicked: A Recipe for Conflict or Conflict Resolution? • Four Voices on Four Children

7
Hardening Pharaoh’s Heart: The Toughest Part of the Story 81
The Bible and the Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart • The Commentators’ Struggle • The Softening of God’s Heart

8
The Festival of Spring: Reconnecting Passover and Nature 93
On Spring and Time • The Origins of Passover:Two Views • History Trumps Nature • Activities, Blessings, and Readings

9
The Exodus as a Personal Spiritual Journey 111
Exodus:The Spiritual Journey • Milestones along the Road • Crossing the Sea and the First Song • The Journey’s Ultimate Purpose

10
Enslaved in Egypt: Why? 123
The Covenant of the Pieces • Israel Enslaved: Many Questions, Many Answers • Joseph and the Enslavement? • The Self-Critical Voice: Benefits and Dangers

11
“Strangers in a Land Not Theirs”: Remembering to Treat the Strangers among Us Justly 137
Knowing the Heart of the Stranger • A Blessing:Treating Strangers Justly • Two Midrashim on the Stranger • Two Zionist Leaders on the Stranger

12
“In Every Generation . . .”? God’s Role in History and the Jewish People’s History among the Nations 147
God: The Elephant, as It Were, at the Seder • Arguing with God • The Sages on Innocent Suffering • Modern Voices

13
“Go Out and Learn . . .”: How the Haggadah Tells the Story of the Exodus 163
How the Haggadah Tells the Story • The Pilgrims’ Prayer and the Haggadah • A Much-Interpreted Phrase • Laban and Pharaoh • Deuteronomy’s Israelite History without Sinai

14
Women of the Exodus: Redeemed by Their Righteousness 177
Passover in an Upside-Down World • Women and the Haggadah: Missing in Action • The Women of the Exodus in Midrash • Eden and Egypt:Two Tales of Exodus • Serakh bat Asher and the Exodus • The Legend of Miriam’s Well • The Ritual of Miriam’s Cup • Redeemed through Blood and Water: Balancing Elijah’s Cup with Miriam’s Cup

15
The Ten Plagues: Who Suffered and Why? 197
Plagues Against the Israelites? • Why Spill Wine from Our Cups? • When Our Enemies Fall • The Plagues and Knowing God • Signs, Wonders, and Faith: Or Did the Plagues Fail? • Measure for Measure • Revealing the Creator through Anti-Creation

16
Moses in the Haggadah: The Human Role in Redemption 213
Where’s Moses? • “Not By an Angel . . .” • Why Minimize Moses? • Fresh Readings:The Haggadah and the Human Role in the Exodus • The Covenantal Context of Redemption • Righteous Women, Apple Trees and Charoset • Purim in the Haggadah • In Every Generation • Five Midrashic Voices on Redemption

17
Dayyenu: It Would Have Sufficed 231
First Songs:The Song at the Sea and Dayyenu • Roots? • Why Fifteen Divine Favors? • Dayyenu as Microcosm • Sinai Without Torah:Would It Have Sufficed?

18
Reliving the Exodus: The Story of the Last Night in Egypt 241
Setting the Stage • The Last Night in Egypt • Bibliodrama: Knocking in the Night • Bibliodrama:To Stay or to Leave? • A Prayer for the Journey • Marching from Egypt to the Promised Land

19
Israel and the Haggadah 253
The Fruits of Israel and Egypt: A Puzzle • Israel’s Absence from the Heart of the Haggadah • Whither Israel? • The Fifth Cup • Readings for the Fifth Cup • Passover, Messianism, and Israel

20
The Restoration of Wonder: The Miracles of Egypt and Our Day 271
The Bible and the Dictionary • The Sages on Miracles • The Restoration of Wonder • Jewish Voices on Miracles • At the Red Sea: The Horse and Driver

21
“Blessed Are You . . . Who Redeemed Us”: The Seder of Redemption 287
The Seder of Hope: Tuning in to Themes of Redemption • Redemption in the Bible and the Ancient Near East • An Age-Old Question: Why Did God Redeem the Israelites from Egypt? • The Four Cups of Redemption • A Quartet of Twentieth-Century Jewish Voices on Redemption • On Faith in Redemption

22
Passover without a Seder: The Paschal Sacrifice 305
Passover in Egypt • In Temple Times • The Passover Rite • Sources on Sacrifice • Sacrifice in Our Lives Today

23
Elijah’s Transformation: From Zealot to Folk Hero 319
Elijah Comes to the Seder • Elijah’s Cup • The Biblical Elijah • The Elijah Puzzle • Modeling the Potential to Change • A Mirror: A Tale of Elijah and the Seder • “Pour Out Your Wrath” versus “Give Up Anger” • More Than Vengence Alone

24
Two Seder Songs: Echad Mi Yodea and Chad Gadya 333
Echad Mi Yodea: Mysterious Origins • A Night of Numbers • Counting What Matters • The Ba’al Shem Tov • Chad Gadya • Inspiration? • Came the Commentators • Modern Voices • The Haggadah’s Last Word:A World of Eternal Life

25
The Exodus from Egypt: The Question of Archeology 349
History and Story • Five Sage Perspectives on the Exodus and History

Appendix I: Chapter Ten of the Mishnah Pesachim, the Night of Passover 357
Appendix II: What Is Midrash? 360
Appendix III: Directions for Art Midrash Projects 361
Appendix IV: Blessing for the New Moon 362

Abbreviations and Abbreviated Titles Used in This Book 364
Notes 366
Select Bibliography 403
Index 407

Editorial Reviews

This book looks at the Seder from 25 different angles, drawing from the Haggadah, the Torah and the Mishnah. The author goes into great detail about the history of the Seder, detailing many of the changes that have taken place throughout history. Included are sections on the four questions, the four children, the sages, Pesach as a spring holiday, slavery, Pesach and Israel, the plagues, redemption, Elijah and the music of the Seder. There is a section from Mishnah Pesachim, a bibliography and an index. The preface notes that this new edition contains a new chapter on music, as well as chapters on the Seder plate and on Moses. The author has obviously studied Pesach in depth, but despite the title, this book is more of a study of the Seder as a historic tradition than an actual guide to conducting a Seder. There are suggestions for using the book that involve printing copies of readings, contacting guests ahead of time and organizing discussions in different rooms before the Seder even begins. This approach will probably be impractical for most readers. Most of the sections do provide questions that may trigger discussion among the right mix of guests. The book has an accompanying website, www.livelyseders.com, that offers more activities, articles about Pesach and a downloadable Haggadah text for users to cut and paste in the process of creating their own Haggadahs. This book is recommended for synagogue libraries, but a better choice for those that don't own it yet is The Family Participation Haggadah: A Different Night, by Noam Zion and David Dishon.

Association of Jewish Libraries - Beth Dwoskin

SCARSDALE, N.Y.—You can find the secret to creating lively Passover seders in a surprising place—an 1,800-year-old law code called the Mishnah.

For starters, the Mishnah did not envision reciting a Haggadah at the seder. Instead, it designed a careful balance between aspects of the evening that should be fixed and others that left room for spontaneity.

Fixed elements included drinking four cups of wine, eating matzah, explaining the meaning of the Passover sacrifice, eating matzah and bitter herbs and reciting the six psalms of Hallel. These would bind us together as a people wherever and whenever we live.

But when it came to telling the Passover story, the Mishnah encouraged creativity. This would prevent seders from becoming lifeless clones of one another. Brilliant!

For example, the Mishnah envisioned a night that should be so different from other nights that children would naturally ask, "Why?" Only if a child were unable or failed to ask spontaneous questions should a parent offer the prompt, "Why is this night different from all other nights?" Then a parent might point out things like “on all other nights we eat leavened bread or unleavened bread, on this night only unleavened bread.”

Just as the child's questions were not prescribed, neither were the answers. As to a response, the Mishnah says, “According to the understanding of the son his father teaches him. He begins with disgrace and ends with glory; and he expounds from My father was a wandering Aramean … (Deuteronomy 26:5) until he finishes the whole section.”

Using a succinct version of the Passover story in Deuteronomy 26:5–8 as a frame, the story was to be told through the process of expounding, drasha—literally “drawing out meaning”—or making midrash.

There was no expectation to create the same midrash every year. The story was to be geared to the level of the child's understanding, which would develop from one year to the next. The story becomes meaningful to those gathered around the table through an interactive, creative process. The Mishnah thus implies that the seder should change from year to year and that no two seders should be exactly the same.

In lieu of “slavishly” reading a prescribed text, the Mishnah encouraged us to take liberties, using its example as a core and a guide. Alas, over the centuries, the balance between the fixed and spontaneous elements of the seder disappeared. Rather than asking their own questions, children read or memorized a mandated set of questions. And in place of an answer aimed at the level of the child’s understanding, the Haggadah incorporated a written midrash on "My father was a wandering Aramean."

The goal of an ideal seder became reading the Haggadah from beginning to end, skipping not a word. The result? Instead of seders feeling like a celebration of freedom, they began to feel more like a chore.

Generation after generation we recited these words from the Haggadah: “Whoever elaborates on the story of the Exodus from Egypt deserves praise.” But rather than prying open a little room for creativity, they remained just words on the page.

In the liberty with which we elaborate on the Exodus, we taste and celebrate freedom. We experience ourselves as free, independent creators, the very antithesis of our ancestors mired in the mind-numbing pits of slavery. In so doing we renew the divine sparks within us that mark us each as images of God, the paradigmatic free creator.

In the spirit of the Mishnah, here are two simple suggestions that will help breathe life into your seder.

A few weeks before Passover, ask each of your guests to respond to the following question: “What do you think would be a particularly important question to discuss at the seder this year?”

If you do this by e-mail, paste the responses into a document without identifying who asked which question. Make a copy for each of your guests. Take turns reading the questions aloud. This is an easy, non-threatening way to let the group know what’s on everyone’s mind. Choose a few questions for discussion throughout the seder. You’ll probably find that questions cluster around particular issues, which can guide you in choosing which questions to discuss.

The second suggestion involves deciding where and when to hold this discussion. Instead of doing it at the seder table, if possible gather in a different room beforehand. You’ll find that shifting the location to the living room, for example, sets the tone for an entirely different conversation. Countless readers of Creating Lively Passover Seders have confirmed that holding some of your Passover discussions before you sit down at the table is the simplest, most powerful way to create a more engaging evening.

If either of these suggestions helps you to experiment with your Seder this year, Dayyenu! It would suffice!

David Arnow is the author of Creating Lively Passover Seders: A Sourcebook of Engaging Tales, Texts & Activities (2nd Edition, Jewish Lights, 2011) and coeditor of My People’s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries.

The Jewish Chronicle - JTA

"Whoever elaborates on the story of the Exodus deserves praise." David Arnow, psychologist and coeditor of My People's Haggadah, deserves much praise for compiling a treasury of Passover material to enrich any seder. The first edition, published in 2004, grew out of supplements Arnow composed for his family's seders. This expanded edition, with new chapters, continues Arnow’s exploration of every aspect of the seder. The chapter on Dayenu lifts it from a rousing song to a summary of the Exodus, built around the number fifteen and its significance in Jewish tradition. Similarly, Arnow brings both medieval scholars and Shmuel Agnon and Yehuda Amichai to comment on Chad Gadya. A chapter on the seder plate opens up the question of where to place what, and Arnow finds Moses in the Haggadah despite the fact that he is not named. The chapters from the first edition are equally expansive, notably the controversial "pour out your wrath" and the figure of Elijah; the archeologic evidence for the Exodus and how it could have entered Jewish tradition and midrashim that bring women into the story.

This is a book to be consulted, not read from cover to cover. Taking his directions from the Mishnah’s brief chapter on the sparse ritual requirements of the seder and its stress on instructing children, Arnow encourages discussion as a means to better understand the festival. He suggests elaborating on one topic a year and outlines formats that encourage discussion, such as distributing passages to participants ahead of time and gathering before the seder for an activity or a conversation about a passage.

However readers choose to use the material, there is enough here for a lifetime of thought-filled seders. As I read the book, I found myself marking passages that I might insert into a seder or that were personally valuable and informative. The great range of material, from the rabbis through medieval scholars to contemporary commentators, not only provides these opportunities but also underlines the remolding of the Exodus story to fit the time and place of its retelling. If you do not have the first edition, you will be rewarded with this expanded version; if you own the earlier edition, you know the possibilities that Arnow’s research provides. Appendixes, index, notes, select bibliography.

The Jewish Book Council - Maron L Waxman

"David Arnow has written the afikomen of Seder books: An ingenious synthesis of history, legend, law, and spirituality (un)leavened with practically helpful, politically important, and psychologically sophisticated suggestions on how to transform your meal into a true celebration of asking and learning. This book belongs next to every seder plate."

—Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, Emanu-El Scholar at Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco; author, The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition

"This richly informative and inspiring book is a treasure for all those seeking to create a Seder that is alive with questions that matter."
—Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, coeditor, The Women's Passover Companion

“A wonderful collection of readings, stories, and activities to enhance your Passover celebration.”
—Dr. Ron Wolfson, vice president, University of Judaism; author, Passover: The Family Guide to Spiritual Celebration

“What is most enjoyable is the connection between the ancient and the contemporary, the timely and timeless quality of our eternal texts which David Arnow has masterfully managed to bring to our attention. Will serve as a marvelous companion piece to the Passover Haggadah and can be referred to year after year.”
—Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, chancellor, Ohr Torah Stone Institutions of Israel

“A deeply enriched and enriching Seder awaits those who use [this] comprehensive sourcebook. [Its] chapter on women of the Exodus is alone worth the cover price.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin, author, Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America

“The book everyone who has to lead or attend a Seder has been waiting for. Simply put: This book will ensure that Seders will be intellectually challenging, emotionally engaging, and spiritually uplifting for years to come. If we only have David Arnow's new book to guide us to creating lively Passover Seders, Dayyenu—it would be enough!”
—Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership; coeditor, The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: CLAL’s Guide to Everyday & Holiday Rituals & Blessings

“A gift to Jewish parents and teachers who want to explore the many layers of history and interpretation in our celebration of freedom.”
—Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, editor, The Open Door, the Reform Haggadah

“A treasure trove of lore and scholarship, insight and activities that will fascinate and enlighten readers and enrich their Seders for decades. An extraordinary array of strategies for reaching the diverse groups who gather to share the Seder experience.”
—Rabbi David A. Teutsch, past president, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

“A welcome support for Seder leaders everywhere. As Jewish life continues to evolve, the Seder remains a pivotal moment to transmit values, stories, and the culture of our people. This book is full of ideas, texts, and information on how to enrich the experience for all gathered at the table!.”
—Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael, rabbinic director, Jewish Women’s Spirituality Institute, JCCs of Greater Philadelphia

From the Publisher

Product Description

A guide to help you invigorate your Seder, create lively discussions, and make personal connections with the Exodus story today.

For many people, the act of simply reading the Haggadah no longer fulfills the Passover Seder's purpose: to help you feel as if you personally had gone out of Egypt. Too often, the ritual meal has become predictable, boring, and uninspiring.

Creating Lively Passover Seders is an innovative, interactive guide to help encourage fresh perspectives and lively dialogue. This intriguing Haggadah companion offers thematic discussion topics, text study ideas, activities, and readings that come alive in the traditional group setting of the Passover Seder. Each activity and discussion idea aims to:

• Deepen your understanding of the Haggadah

• Provide new opportunities for engaging the themes of the Passover festival, including interactive readings and bibliodrama

• Develop familiarity with the Exodus story, as well as the life and times of the people who shaped the development of the Haggadah

Reliving the Exodus is not about remembering an event long ago, but about participating in a conversation that provides hope and strength for the struggle to make tomorrow a brighter day. With this complete resource, you can create more meaningful encounters with Jewish values, traditions and texts that lead well beyond the Seder itself.

Trendific Blog

Passover is coming again, and with it, the irony of liberation. What irony? That while Passover is the Jewish holiday of freedom, so many of us feel enslaved to it. The cleaning, the prohibitions, the absurd details of kosher dish soap and unkosher salt, and worst of all, the endless drone of the Haggadah, which in so many households is, as Macbeth memorably intoned, "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

We've all been there: the Passover Seder that seems as long as the slavery in Egypt, complete with indecipherable Hebrew and Aramaic texts and bizarre exegesis (50 plagues! 200 plagues!), all recited in a hopeless, mindless drone. To me, the "We Don't Know Why We’re Reading This, but We’re Going To Read It All Anyway" Seder ritual seems deliberately designed to turn even the most inquisitive “wise child” into a contrary wicked one, a stupefied simple one and then, finally, an absent and therefore silent one. Really, there’s hardly a better way to drive away your friends and children from Judaism than to mouth the meaningless syllables of a rabbinic text.

The irony is that the Seder, modeled on the Greek symposium, was never meant to be about rote recitation. The text of the Haggadah is not a magical formula; it’s a model for conversation, a jumping-off point, an inspiration. This is how the rabbis did it, the Haggadah says; now it’s your turn. The long exegesis on the Exodus narrative is not the point; the point is for each of us to tell the story anew, embellishing as fantastically and freely as did our rabbinic forbears.

There are plenty of contemporary examples of how this could work in practice, even for families with small children. In the mainstream, interactive Haggadot—like Noam Zion and David Dishon’s A Different Night: The Family Participation Haggadah (Shalom Hartman Institute, 1997) and Zion’s (with Mishael Zion) more recent A Night To Remember: The Haggadah of Contemporary Voices (Zion Holiday Publications, 2007)—capture perfectly the multi-vocality and pedagogical potential of the Seder ritual. Likewise, the encyclopedic My People’s Passover Haggadah (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2007), edited by Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman and David Arnow). This Haggadah brings together the traditional text and commentaries from a wide variety of viewpoints. To lead a Seder from such Haggadot takes work. (Arnow’s sourcebook Creating Lively Passover Seders [Jewish Lights Publishing, 2004] can help there.) But the reward is worth the investment—and the work can be divided among Seder attendees, with each taking responsibility for different parts of the evening….

Present your children (and peers) with a dead, written-in-stone-and-read-in-monotone Judaism, and they will indeed follow the descent of the “four sons,” a one-way journey from alienation to ignorance to cultural extinction.

But dare to take the risk—not by dressing up the Seder in “cool” clothing, but by re-examining your fundamental assumptions of why we’re yoking ourselves to this text in the first place, by putting in the time and effort and, in so doing, demonstrating your own interest in the Jewish project—and there’s a chance that some of them will rise to the occasion. You do not need a doctorate or a working knowledge of Aramaic to make the Seder special, just the courage to ask more than the same four questions, and make this night a little different from the rest.

Forward - Jay Michaelson

An innovative, interactive guide that can help encourage fresh perspectives and lively dialogue offers thematic discussion topics, text study ideas, activities and readings that come alive in the traditional group setting of the Passover seder. Original.

Paper Clips - David Arnow