Holy Days Archive

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Passover: An interactive card
This is a publication of CLAL's National Jewish Resource Center, dedicated to increasing awareness of sacred practices that change North American Jewish life...

PESACH HOLIDAY CARD

It is Passover and the young people have found the afikoman.

Now it's your turn...

This is AFIKOMAN FOR GROWN-UPS.

STEP 1:

Select one theme of Passover that feels especially important to you this year, such as:

Renewing life: karpas

Being free: matzah

Telling our sacred story: magid

Feeding the hungry: ha lachma anya

Asking important questions: mah nishtanah

Honoring multiple voices: arba'ah banim

Connecting to past generations: b'khol dor vador

Celebrating life: hallel

Yearning for sacred space: l'shanah ha'ba'ah b'yerushalaim

Get up from the seder table. Search your hosts' home for different ways in which your important Passover theme is reflected in people, places and things. (Just as the kids did, ask your hosts what's out-of-bounds!)

Hints:

If RENEWING LIFE is important, look for signs of springtime, personal and spiritual growth, new interests, new family members, rekindled relationships, pruning back, getting second chances, planning for the future, renovation.... If you find daffodils, slipcovers or a pregnant guest, you're on the right track!

If BEING FREE and freeing others is important, look for the ways we increase independence for ourselves and others, degrees or certificates we've earned that give us confidence and permission to act boldly, symbols of commitments to social justice.... If you find a dishwasher, a set of car keys, a home-made haggadah or a backpack, you're on your way!

STEP 2:

When you've completed your search, return to the seder table. Share what you've been searching for and describe all the evidence you've discovered. These discoveries are the afikoman you've found. The daffodils, the car keys -- they are symbols of sacred commitments for you, just as the haroset, matzah, and marror are for many.

Now your seder can go on with blessing and song as the taste of afikoman lingers on.

STEP 3:

Claim your prize.

THE PRIZE FOR GUESTS: When you return to your own homes or places of work, you get to search for the important themes of Passover that are present in your own lives, even if they are slightly concealed.

THE PRIZE FOR HOSTS: You've gotten a head start - your friends and relatives have made a "sacred map" of your home and have revealed how embedded the themes of Passover are. Now, after everyone leaves, you get to search out the spaces that were out-of-bounds.

Play AFIKOMAN FOR GROWN-UPS during your seders after the young people have looked for the afikoman. Invite the young people to join with you if you wish. Or hold another search with friends and family still in town after the seder nights: after all, you have at least 6 more days of Passover and enough leftovers for a tribe.
Some Sephardic Jews keep a piece of the afikoman all year as a sign of God's blessings. Post this card someplace you can see it yearlong. Let it remind you of the themes of Passover that are strong and vibrantly present in your life.

Feel free to make copies.

And in the end, we will find afikoman.
We will find the hidden matzah, the hidden awareness,
the hidden parts of the soul.

Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav