YCQ has been deep in preparation for Pesach for weeks. Matzah covers were made, Kiddush cups created, classrooms cleaned, and model Seders were rehearsed. YCQ Early Childhood, Elementary School, and Junior High School students are ready to attend their family Sedarim with knowledge and understanding.
Morah Etty Borochoff, Elementary School (ES) teacher, reported, “When I teach students about Pesach, they learn the meaning of why we do what we do, before and during Pesach. We review the story of leaving Mitzrayim, and the miracles that Hashem performed for us. The children realize Hashem is always with us. Four days before Pesach, I don’t assign homework. Instead, I ask them to help their parents prepare the house for Pesach, even a single drawer, so they feel the excitement of Pesach preparation. One of my students said, ‘I’d rather have homework, please!’ On the day before our model Seder, after we finish cleaning the classroom, we do Beur Chametz.
After cleaning the classroom, the students were very strict about ‘no chometz in the class.’ The next day, the students dressed nicely, set the tables, and participated in a model Seder attended by Morah Idit Cohen, Ivrit Teacher, Mrs. Melissa Cohen, Assistant Principal of ES General Studies, Rabbi Michael Ribalt, Assistant Principal of ES Judaic Studies, and Rabbi Landsman, Principal of YCQ. This year, the children asked for a d’var Torah based on what we learned. They asked, ‘Why Lel haSeder?’ Seder means order. My goal is that the children understand the true meaning of everything that we read in the Haggadah, when they sit at the Seder table with their families.”
