Seder Plate Artist Statement

In the following image I drew a Seder plate which represnts the Holliday’s that we celebrate and why it is important to commemorate them. On the top I drew hands from different races holding together which represents unity. The story of exodus is what united the Jewish people and brought them together as a nation.

The left drawing represents the gift of Shabbat that god gave to us which makes us unique and different from the other nations.

The right drawing represents kindness to strangers because we were once many times in the same position when other people were kind to us .

The bottom drawing represents honesty because that is also what turned the Jewish people into a nation in the dessert.

Why do we drink while reclining to the left? Why not the right? Why do we recline in general?

We recline to rest because we can finally rest. Food is normally held in the right hand. Leaning toward the left leaves the right hand free.

Why do we need to wash our hands at all?

We pour water over our hands as an expression of wisdom pouring downward passing through our heart and from there to our interaction with the world around us.Wash them clean of the impurities of a life in a materialistic world.

why is it important to have a small piece so that we dont have to make a blessing of bracha achrona?

Mishna Brurah 473:56 writes that even if one did eat more than a Kezayit one should not make a Boreh Nefashot because we want the HaAdama to cover the Maror.

Why do we split the middle matsah, particularly, in two? 

To show there is no moisture, a poor man cant afford real bread.

Why are the matsot uncovered during the saying of the Maggid. 

Shmuel said that the phrase: “The bread of affliction [leḥem oni]” (Deuteronomy 16:3) means bread over which one answers [onim] matters, i.e., one recites the Haggadah over matza. That was also taught in a baraita: Leḥem oni is bread over which one answers many matters. Alternatively, in the verse, “leḥem oni” is actually written without a vav, which means a poor person. Just as it is the manner of a poor person to eat a piece of bread, for lack of a whole loaf,

On what age are you supposed to start saying Ma Nishtana 

Preferably kids that are under the age of 13, but anyone can. 

Many people say that the four sons are there to teach us how to respond to our own children. Every child should have an opportunity to learn this story, but not all children learn the same.

Why are all the stories about the Jews being outcasts?

There are stories of this because, the Jews are looked at as outsiders and they have to struggle with this forever and the only way they will learn to accept this is if we go through being looked at not in the best way.

Makat Bechorot: Plague of the Firstborn

Yosi Groman

I chose to draw a picture of an Egyptian with his dead firstborn son.

The last plagueְ  which was the plague of the firstborn, is the most outstanding because of how important the firstborns were to the Egyptians. All firstborn sons died which doesn’t make sense because the Egyptian civilians wanted to get rid of them and they didn’t want to suffer. Batia, Pharaoh's daughter, took Moshe in and fostered him instead of killing him. Shouldn’t only Pharaoh’s son have died?

In Egypt the firstborns had the most power. Pharaoh was a firstborn from a firstborn from a firstborn, which automatically put him in the position of power in Egypt.

The firstborns were more important than all the other children, which is why it was so much more effective than the other plagues. The Shira mentions a horse and rider, which refers to the top class of people AKA the firstborn sons, which are what support and maintain society. Without them, society would crumble and fall apart. B’nai Yisrael, who were slaves, were on the bottom of the hierarchy, so a major step to liberation was for the firstborns to die. Finally for the horses and the riders to die in the splitting of the sea is the last step to liberation.

Why do we wash our hands again, yet say the hand-washing blessing this time around? 

It has been a while seen we last washed our hands before Karpas, so we need to wash them again and, this time, we recite a blessing as we usually do before eating bread.