What do we say to our child(ren) coming to Seder?


This Passover Seder will be fun!  There's no need to worry about how the children are engaged.  We've got many years of experience.  On the other hand, there's a conversation about Passover that might be worthwhile to have:

Our people had the wisdom to preserve remembering being slaves as the most important moment of the beginning of the Jewish people.  Why is that important?  It makes us proud to know that identifying with being a slave, calling it up from time to time, and telling it from generation to generation is one of the most powerful values and identity shapers available to human kind.  

When we hold up the matzah and say, "This is the bread of affliction (our suffering in slavery)," we are really saying that we care about all people who face oppression (cruelty).  We remember being strangers in a strange land that was not our home, because it says to us to be welcoming to the stranger and to make sure that they are treated fairly and kindly. even lovingly.  

In a world that often teaches to "fear the stranger," eating matzah gives a very important and different message: to be kind and loving.