David Schwartz
EDUCATION DIRECTOR
David has been with Temple Har Zion since 2018.
March 1, 2026 | Blessing | Liturgy
Why is this Night Different?
You shall tell your child on that day — Exodus 13:8
One of the most famous parts of the Passover Seder is the Four Questions, sometimes called Ma Nishtana. The Four Questions came about because the Torah says that we should tell our children about leaving Egypt, but sometimes the children need prompting to ask the questions so we can do it.
Yet this is not the only way that the rabbis suggested to make Passover different so that the children will ask “Why is this night different from all other nights?” Other things that they suggested included putting the plates out at the beginning of the seder, then taking them away partway through, or giving children nuts or candies at the beginning of the meal. The “hide-and-seek” game with the piece of matzah known as the Afikomen came from the rabbis’ suggestion to snatch the matzah off the table in order to provoke questions.
So where does this leave us in the twenty-first century? How do we make the Passover Seder meaningful to all ages and stages of youth?
The first thing is that kids and teens should be invited to help with food preparations for the seder. If you are hosting a seder, you will probably have a lot of food to prepare. If you are going to somebody else’s seder, perhaps you are bringing a dish. Even if you aren’t, there will be ample opportunity to make Matzah Pizza during the week of Passover. Things like putting foods onto the seder plate are doable even for little hands. Making charoset is memorable when it involves smashing walnuts or pumpkin seeds in a Ziploc bag with a hammer, and then shaking up the other ingredients.
Making food for the meal can be an opportunity to share where the recipes came from—perhaps it has been in your family for generations, or perhaps you picked it up along the way. Remember, some day your child will be making Passover Seders of their own, and you want them to be equipped to replicate the foods that make Passover taste like Passover to them.
Children can also help set up for the seder. Even young children can put pillows on chairs, which gives a chance to explain why we recline to show that we are free. Older kids can make place cards for everybody, or create Passover scenes out of Legos.
Additionally, there are considerations for what to do during the seder itself. For young children, perhaps you add “The Frog Song” before doing the Ten Plagues. For older children, perhaps you have a discussion question about “What are modern plagues?”
Abraham Infeld, the former head of Hillel, used to say that Jews don’t have history, we have memory. The Passover Seder is the greatest teaching opportunity that Jews have to transmit what happened to our people in an all-senses experience. Whatever your seder experience looks like this year, I would be delighted to help you make the most of it for your child(ren)—please reach out (dschwartz@wsthz.org).
Chag sameach—wishing you a happy holiday!
This is the Education article from the March 26, 2006, Har Zion Herald.
