‘What’s the most important food?” Tzivie Greenberg asked as she flipped through a slideshow of traditional Passover foods.
“Matzo!” several kids replied.
Matzo, or crisp unleavened bread, is eaten only during Passover, the holiday celebrating the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt 3,331 years ago. Last year, the Chabad Jewish Center in Clark County made matzo in preparation for Passover, which begins Friday. This year, they decided to do something different. On Sunday, children and their parents gathered at the synagogue in Brush Prairie to prepare Seder foods and Seder plates. Seder is a ceremonial Jewish dinner eaten during the first two nights of Passover, and it’s the central part of the holiday, said Rabbi Shmulik Greenberg.
Its traditions center around telling stories during the meal.
“Generation after generation, we’ve been sharing our story, parent to child,” said Tzivie Greenberg, co-director of the Jewish center.
There were several foods prepared Sunday for the Seder plates: chicken bones, charoset — a fruit and nut paste — hard-boiled eggs, vegetables or herbs dipped in salt water (meant to represent tears) and different types of bitter herbs, such as horseradish or romaine lettuce.
They’re unfamiliar foods, meant to prompt questions from inquiring young minds. “This tastes bitter. Why are we eating this?” “What is matzo?” As with other Jewish holidays, the foods are infused with meaning and history.
For instance, charoset is meant to represent the brick and mortar from when the Israelites were enslaved and made bricks. The bitter herbs are dipped in the sweet charoset.
Skylar Wake, 8, was enjoying roasting chicken bones over an open flame. Her mother, Michelle Gregory, was eventually able to tear her away from that engrossing activity so she could put together a wooden seder plate shaped like the Star of David.
“I love that we do these,” Gregory said.
She said these kind of activities are important because they get children involved in the holiday on another level.
“It allows them to interact with that history in a different way,” Gregory said.
Sarah Mittelman said the activities help build her sons’ foundation in Judaism in a fun, engaging way. The two boys go to Hebrew school.
“I love coming here for chabad,” Mittelman said.
There are certain readings to be done and steps to be followed during the two seders, sometimes called the first Seder and second Seder. (Seder means order.) Passover begins on the 15th day of Nisan, which this year falls on Friday.
Sunday was also Palm Sunday, which, according to the Christian tradition, celebrates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and marks the beginning of Holy Week.
