WE LIGHT THE CANDLES

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק נֵר שֶׁל שַׁבָּת

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, Melekh ha'olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik ner shel Shabbat.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to light the Shabbat candles.

ברוך אתה ה' א‑לוהינו, מלך העולם, שהחינו וקימנו והגענו לזמן הזה

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam, she'heheyanu v'kiy'manu v'higi'anu la'z'man ha'ze.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.

Shalom! Shalom! We say Shalom!

We wish you well and welcome you.

It's seder time, it's seder time! (Children repeat)

Four questions begin the story we tell

To four kinds of children we know so well. (Everyone counts to four).

We drink four cups of wine because there are four Hebrew words for freedom. (Count the cups together).

We raise our cup Number 1 and sing the blessing together.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגֶּפֶן

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, Melekh ha'olam, bo're p'ri hagefen.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

We dip a vegetable into salt water. Salt water reminds us of tears.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, Melekh ha`olam, bo're p'ri ha'adama.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the ground.

We Break The Middle Matzah

We break the middle matzah into two pieces. We wrap and set aside one of the pieces - the Afikomen. This will be hidden and you will all look for it later - after the meal. The Afikomen is the dessert matzah.

Adult 
Once upon a time in the Land of Egypt,
A ruler named Pharaoh
Made the Jews work very hard.

Adult 
We worked all day,
We worked all night,
We had no rest,
We knew it was not right.  (Children repeat, while stamping feet.)
(Children stand and pretend to be hammering stone and digging hard ground.)

Bang Bang (listen on Spotify)
Bang, bang, bang, hold your hammer low.
Bang, bang, bang, give a heavy blow.
For it's work, work, work, every day and every night.
For it's work, work, work, when it's dark and when it's light.
Dig, dig, dig, dig your shovels deep.
Dig, dig, dig, there's no time for sleep.
For it's work, work, work, every day and every night.
For it's work, work, work, when it's dark and when it's light.
(Children are seated back at their places.)

Teva, Teva (Ark, Ark)
(Sung to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle")
Teva, teva Moses lay
In a teva lined with hay.
Down the River Nile he sailed,
Found by a princess who heard his wail.
(All children wail)
Teva, teva Moses lay in a teva filled with hay.
There he stayed and learned and grew,
There he called home, but inside he knew,
Something more was going on,
He would have to find his real home.
Moses grew into a man,
And one day he ran and ran and ran.
He found himself in a strange new land.
He met some people who lent a helping hand.
Moses, Moses spoke with Adonai.
Moses, Moses would be our guy.

Adult 
Who will save us? Who will help?
God heard our cry and made a plan.
One helper was needed to save God's clan.
Who will save us? Who will help? (Children repeat)

Adult 
When Moses was born his mother did fear
That soldiers would take her child so dear.
So she made a plan to save her son,
And that's when we saw how God's work can get
done. (Children repeat)

Adult 3
One fine day, Moses climbed and climbed so high.
(Pretend to climb)
He thought that he actually could reach the sky.
There on the mountain was an awesome sight.
A bush stood burning with a radiant light.
(Reach hands upward, like rays)
It was God right there, right there in the bush.
It was God speaking to Moses. Oh my, how he shook!
(Everybody shake)
With fear and awe and confusion and might,
Moses understood he was starting a new time in his life.

Adult 
So down the mountain Moses came, a staff in hand,
a face of faith.
"To Egypt I must go," he told his wife, Tziporrah.
To Pharaoh I must say, "Please let my people go!"
To Pharaoh I must say, "Please let my people go!" (Children repeat)

Let My People Go
When Israel was in Egypt Land
Let my people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand
Let my people go!

Adult 
Moses went to the Pharaoh and said, "Let us go!" (Children repeat "Let us go!")
He looked him in the eye and said, "My God says so." (Point your finger and say it strong!)
Pharaoh laughed, Pharaoh smirked, Pharaoh folded his arms and said, (Children fold their arms and say what Pharaoh said)
"No way, no way, will I let your people free. I need them to build my great big city.
I need them to make the statues. I need them to make bricks.
I need them to schlep water. I need them for all my tricks."

Ask the children to fill in the end of the sentence to think of things the Pharaoh needed the slaves to do for him:
I need them to ______.
I need them to ______.

Adult 
I will return, you will see
The God of Israel will set my people free.

You have one day to change your mind,
Or we will find ways to make you more kind.

Adult 
So Moses went home and saw his family.
He was sad, he was troubled, and he prayed
to Elohim.
They made a plan to try to teach.
The Pharaoh must learn that God is our King.

Adult 
Pharaoh still would not be kind,
So God sent some reasons to help change his mind.
He sent some frogs to jump and twitch
(All pretend to be frogs and jump, jump, jump)

He sent some bugs to make Pharaoh itch.
(Everyone scratches)
Blood in the water turned the river red.
Flies all around made him cover his head.
There were 10 plagues God sent in all,
So finally to Moses, Pharaoh did call.

Adult 4
Let's all count to 10 together. When we count the plagues in the seder, we mark them by taking a little of the juice (wine) out of one of our cups with our finger and put it on our napkins, like this.

As we talk about the plagues,
We really use our imagination
And try to feel, to see, to hear and to smell all the plagues.

 

Adult 
(Act out packing here)
It took lots of patience. It took lots of work.
But Pharaoh was being a great big jerk.
At last he said, "Yes, take your people now."
And we packed up our toys and our pillows and blankies. (Encourage the children to say something they would pack and pretend to put it in the suitcase.)

Adult 
We packed up our shoes and our hairbrushes and our crayons.

Adult 
We packed up our toothbrushes and our socks and our pets.

Adult 
We packed up everything we could 'cause we had to move fast.

Ten Plagues in Egypt Land
(Words and music by Peter and Ellen Allard, from the CD Bring the Sabbath Home)

Chorus: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 plagues in Egypt Land (repeat)
Blood in the water made the river run red, 10 plague in Egypt Land.
Frogs were jumping in Pharaoh's hair, 10 plagues in Egypt Land.

1-2-3….

Creepy crawly, itchy lice, 10 plagues in Egypt Land.
Filthy flies so dirty and vile, 10 plagues in Egypt Land.

1-2-3…

The cattle and the horse and the oxen died, 10 plagues in Egypt Land.
Boils and blisters on his skin, 10 plagues in Egypt Land.

1-2-3…

The hail rained down from the heavens so high, 10 plagues in Egypt Land.
Swarms of locusts ate the crops, 10 plagues in Egypt Land.
Dark descended in the light of the day, 10 plagues in Egypt Land.

1-2-3…

First-born was the final blow, 10 plagues in Egypt Land.
Finally Pharaoh let the people go, 10 plagues in Egypt Land.

1-2-3…

Adult 
We didn't trust Pharaoh, and we thought there was a chance…

Adult 
That he would change his mind and capture us right back.

Adult 
But we were on our way to the Promised Land.
So watch out bad Pharaoh, we're a strong Jewish clan! (Children repeat)

We drink four cups of wine (juice) on Passover. (Count the cups together)

We raise our cup numbered 2 and sing the blessing together:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגֶּפֶן

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, Melekh ha'olam, bo're p'ri hagefen.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Adult 
We eat matzah to remind us that when Pharaoh let us go we had to hurry, and there wasn't enough time to finish making the bread. So, we took the dough that wasn't ready yet. 

Take a piece of matzah and say the blessing.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הַמּוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam, hamotzi lehem min ha'aretz.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth.

Matzah with cream cheese, matzah with jelly, matzah with eggs, matzah with butter. There are lots of ways of eating matzah, but during our seder, it's charoset we'll eat to remind us of the bricks the slaves were forced to make.

Take a piece of matzah and add some charoset. Bon' apetit!

Why do we eat this bitter herb? It reminds us of how badly the Egyptians treated us with working hard, making bricks and all kinds of chores. 

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheynu Melech ha'olam asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav vetzevanu al achilot maror.

Blessed are you O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us by his commandments  and has commanded us concerning the eating of Maror.

It's now time to eat an unusual kind of sandwich. It's called the Hillel sandwich. I'm sure this is like no sandwich you have ever tasted! Take a little bit of matzah, horseradish and charoset and eat. This is to remind us that even though there might be times that are hard (bitter) for us, something sweet can come out of it.

It's now time to find the piece of matzah that was hidden. Look up, look down, look all around! The one who finds the matzah will be given a special prize!  

What's a great meal without dessert? During our seder, we eat that special piece of matzah known as the afikoman.
We raise our piece of matzah and sing the blessing together:

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam, hamotzi lehem min ha'aretz.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הַמּוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth.

We praise you Lord our God, King of the Universe, who gives food to all. Thank you that you love us so much!

May the Holy One, who makes peace in the Heavens, make peace for us, for Israel and for all the world!

We drink four cups of wine (juice) on Passover (Count the cups.1,2,3)

We raise our cups numbered 3 and sing the blessing together.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגֶּפֶן

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, Melekh ha'olam, bo're p'ri hagefen.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Adult 
Every year at our Passover seder, we invite a very special guest.

Adult 
Do you know who it could be? Is it Mickey Mouse? No! (Encourage the children to respond with a group "no.")
Is it Snow White? No!

Adult 
Is it the Harry Potter? No!
Is it the rabbi or the cantor? No!

Adult 
It's a very special prophet who goes from house to house on Passover night and has a sip of wine from a special cup put out just for him!

Adult 
Elijah is his name! Elijah the Prophet!
We'll stand up and face the door and use our
imaginations to welcome Elijah because one day, we
hope very soon, Elijah will come and help to make peace throughout the world!

Adult 
Let's sing a special song just for Elijah.

Eliyahu HaNavi
Eliyahu hanavi,
Eliyahu hatishbi,
Eliyahu hagiladi.

Bimheirah b'yameinu,
yavo eileinu,
im Mashiach ben David.

May Elijah the prophet,
Elijah the Tishbite,
Elijah of Gilead,
quickly in our day come to us
heralding redemption.

Adult 
Now we'll raise our cups, once again, for the fourth
cup of wine. (count cups one at a time …1-2-3-4)

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגֶּפֶן

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, Melekh ha'olam, bo're p'ri hagefen.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Adult 
Now we are finished with our seder! We remember the story of our people's exodus from Egypt, from slavery to freedom.

Adult 
We were slaves in Egypt, and that is why we try really hard to make sure that no people are slaves today.
We want everyone to be able to live happy, safe lives everywhere in the world. Everywhere in the world we fight for freedom.

Adult 
And we hope for peace throughout the world and in Israel and that people from the four corners of the world will join together in Israel.

Am Yisrael Chai
Am Yisrael am Yisrael am Yisrael chai
(repeat four times)
Od avinu chai HEY! Od avinu chai HEY!
Od avinu, Od avinu, Od avinu, chai!