Part of my preparation for my preschoolers with their Haggadah is to give them a taste of “chayav adam liros es atzmo k’ilu hu yatza mimtzrayim.”   I do this by inviting  Miriam HaNeviah (a.k.a. me) to come to the kitah and she brings us all back in time to the night of Yetzias Mitzrayim when  we left in a hurry and then what we did when we arrived at the Yam Suf.  Included in the reenactment are the child actors for Moshe Rabbeinu, Aharon and Nachshon.  This year, one child was eager to play the part of Moshe and volunteered himself when the rest of the class admonished him as we had a real Moshe, who was quite keen to step up to plate and hold the mateh.  Bless my assistant who has no choice but to come along for the ride and be our “Josephus” in documenting the event in real time with pictures for time immemorial, in the aforementioned Hagaddah.  The children are a bit skeptical as they know  Morah is in costume and they relish saying, “it’s really you Morah!,” almost as if to reassure themselves. Once they  receive their slave headdresses, and the silliness wears off, as it is quite funny to see your friend wearing such headgear, they are assigned their specific “avodah.” And then it’s time to GO!  It is incredible to observe in their eyes  their Koach HaDimyon kick in  as they are imagining the Shibud, the Makkos and everything else that happened.

I won’t reveal any more Morah tricks of the trade, however for the purpose of this article and in deference to Rosh Chodesh Nissan, I would like to share with you the power of imagination and why it is crucial to tap into it for Seder Night.  The Klausenberger Rebbe, ztl, refers to this when he wrote about his experiences during the Holocaust.  It was only during the horrors endured in the camp that he could finally connect to the Shibud Mitzrayim. I think for many of us living post October 7^th and currently now with the war in Iran we can relate to this a bit easier.  For me personally, as a daughter of survivors,  I have my father’s diary of his Holocaust miracle survival that connects me to him and to what slavery and torture really are.

If you read the news, and who isn’t, as we are all invested in the safety of our People and our Homeland, the idea of survival is not just an idea throughout our history but it is very real and as ever  present today. We worry about our children and other family members and friends living there or studying there.  We pray desperately for our brave and still so young soldiers to be safe and meet their mission with success and without harm.  We daven for the emotional fortitude as well. There is so much trauma. My daughter was speaking with her friend in the middle of the day , Baltimore time, who is in seminary and they had to abruptly hang up as the siren went off and her friend had to run to the miklat.  We said Tehillim.

I cannot even fathom what it is like for anyone to wake up, and repeatedly, in all hours of the night and day and then rush, rush, rush to the shelter.  Someone posted a video of herself rushing with her  young children running in the dead of night and it was quite eye opening. You could hear her saying how cold it was in the stairwell, which made it more relatable.  This particular young mom feels that some of us in the Diaspora are not as invested as we were by October 7^th and not really connecting to their current pain.  It hurt to read that  and that is why I am writing this now.  Yes, we may all be preparing for Pesach and juggling the many balls that come with that, along with keeping the stress at bay and the other stuff of our lives.  I keep reminding myself that this is nothing in comparison to what our Israeli brethren are going through. How do you clean and stop when there’s a siren?  How do you take care of your children, when there’s no school still, and scoop them all up and run?  How do the elderly and people with disabilities manage that? How can one ever prepare for Yom Tov? And the list goes on.  This is the Koach HaDimyon we need to utilize to connect to Acheinu Bnei Yisroel. As I told my preschoolers once the giggles died down and explained to them why we were doing what we were doing, how can we feel free if we never felt like we were Slaves? To my dear brothers and sisters across  the ocean:  we feel you, we hear you and see you,  are davening for you, and really for us all!

As we dance the delicate dance of balancing our lives with meaning and the mundane,  we march on with the preparations of Pesach.  Mine will wait until the official Pesach break starts.  That’s how it has always been and I’ve learned over the years to accept it.  One of the perks of my job is that  in  learning along with my students I gain  insights into previous lessons I have taught before and view them in a new light.   I am grateful for this as well as the natural excitement that is engendered within me before each yom tov and chag in our Jewish calendar year. It has become part of my Hachonas HaYom Tov.  One of the lessons gleaned this year, once we crossed to the other side,  is that the Hagaddah says V’Higadata L’Bincha, and you shall teach your children. Most of us, or at least I did, assume it’s the parents teaching their children and certainly this is true.  I would like to add my own thought.  Children have the natural ability of Imagination that  adults readily do  not. The Hagaddah is instructing us to find the child within us, perhaps our inner child, and speak to him, for that is the way to harness this remarkable working  of the mind.

This Pesach as we sit down to Seder, wherever that finds us, let us take a moment to really connect to who we are, no matter how old we are.  After all, we are called the Bnei Yisroel, the children of  Yisroel, and it is the title of Banim Atem L’Hashem that G-d  bestows  upon us with love and pride. We are indeed children, and His no less.

And no, I won’t grow up…

Written as a zechus for Klall YIsorel.

Dedicated to my talmidim.

Morah Judy Landman,

Beis Nissan TShPV