In Talmud’s Mashechet Pesachim (Chapter 10, page 115b), the
phrase okrin et ha-shulchan appears
once, as if its purpose was clear and uncontroversial. “V’ein okrin et ha-shulchan ela
lifnei me she omer hagemara” (and you only pluck -- uproot, eradicate,
extricate -- the table that is in front of the one reading the Haggadah). The sudden
act comes right before the four questions.
What!? Why!?
Picture the setting: The
full, rabbinic Passover seder, designed to resemble the free person’s banquets
of their own time, looks a lot like a Greco-Roman Symposium. Picture elegant people in comfortably draped
clothes lounging around on couches. Within easy arms’ reach of each person sits
a small table laden with food and wine. The hours-long event is filled with
singing, drinking, feasting, story-telling, and speaking at great length of local
gossip, world affairs, and the latest fad, philosophy.
While in Greek and Roman cultures the symposium was an adult
event of pure pleasure, the Jewish version has a different purpose: the transmission
to each generation of our people’s history of our movement from slavery to
freedom, as if it is current events. The
pleasures, the lounging, the food and wine, the singing, the games, the
lists, and the story-telling – these are not aimed at entertainment, they are
entertainment aimed at education. Today,
we would call it “edutainment”.
Commentators on the Gemara agree about why the seder leader’s
table (or in our times, the Seder Plate) should be suddenly yanked away just
before Ma Nishtanah and Maggid (the asking of the four questions
and the subsequent recitation of the story). The surprise and physicality of uprooting a key item draws children’s
attention to the proceedings and engages their curiosity just in time for the important
Q & A.
I believe that the rabbis’ point was to engage the children
as actively as possible, so that they don’t see the discussions and stories as the
adults’ domain. At your seder, you might consider engaging in akirat ha-shulckan, uprooting the Seder Plate,
but please do even more! By preparing
ahead, you can have at hand a line-up of physical, surprising, and fun
activities for the children. Bring each out
as it becomes relevant to the story and each time you see the youngsters’
attention drifting.
These websites have great free ideas and resources,
including many downloadable games. Remember, it’s all about attaching the next
generation to our shared narrative as if it is their own, which, of course, it
is!
Shabbat shalom and chag sameach!
Morah Rhonda
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