Over the past weeks we have been busy across the School preparing for Pesach. This has taken on many forms. Our Kibbutz David Hamelech gardeners have harvested horseradish which has been sold to grateful families by volunteers from the KDSPA. We have conducted a series of model s’darim where parents and grandparents delighted in our students’ reenactment of the Exodus. Our Jewish Studies and Jewish Experiential Education teams have also engaged our students in the deep philosophical themes that are evident in our liberation story as a catalyst to enriching the experience at an intellectual level.

The hive of activity is worth it. Pesach is an annual peak experience that brings families together and deeply connects us with our origins. 

The founder of modern Hebrew, Eliezer Ben Yehuda, devoted much of his life to the restoration and expansion of the language. A fascinating article about him by David Saiger in My Jewish Learning details how together with his wife, Deborah Jonas, he created the first Hebrew speaking household. Ben Yehuda went to extreme measures to ensure the viability of the project. He prevented his young son, Ben-Zion, from speaking with other children to protect his Hebrew language. Ben Yehuda also promoted the teaching of Hebrew as a spoken language in schools and went to great lengths to publish lists of new words in journals to expand the available vocabulary to account for contemporary items and concepts that were not referenced in Hebrew’s ancient, biblical origins. 

One of the words that was brought into Hebrew from common parlance was “history” which took the form “historia”. It seems extraordinary that there was not an equivalent term for the idea of an objective documentation of the past. The closest equivalence in ancient Hebrew is “zikaron” which translates as memory. In my view this is a clue to the comparable longevity of Jewish continuity over millennia. 

The power of the seder is in its subjective retelling of the past. We engage with the story not through history but through memory. This is demonstrated to us in many ways. 

I recall a conversation I had with Rabbi Levi when I was preparing for my Bar Mitzvah at Temple Beth Israel. He taught me to recite the Ten Commandments and I asked why the first one reads as a statement without any imperative. It is: “I am the Eternal One, your God, who led you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”  Rabbi Levi challenged me to find the implied commandment that is embedded in this statement. 

What I came to is that it invokes a connection between God, our past generations and us. The statement is not passive or impersonal, it is not “…who led the Hebrews” or “your forebears” out of Egypt. It is who led “you”. So I believe that the commandment here is to stand up as Moses did at the burning bush and say hineni, “Here I am!” We are commanded to accept our ongoing role in our people’s story.

This is echoed in the structure and ritual of the Seder which utilises the best of experiential education to frame our interaction with our origin story through song, symbolism, food and storytelling. 

This was really clear for the community members who were privileged to see our students take up their roles in the model s’darim. We sang the songs, ate the food, answered the trivia and told the story. We searched for the Afikoman and dressed up as Pharoahs, frogs, babies and slaves. 

For me the most powerful message of this festival and the way we celebrate it at our school was in the resonant call and response of “Hineni”. Hineni was our children saying with their song, laughter and enthusiasm that they connect with their ancient story. And Hineni was also demonstrated by our parents and grandparents who always show up and in-so-doing are saying “I am here for you and always will be!”

Chag Pesach Kasher v’Sameach,

Marc Light
Principal