- Students should know what the Seder is:
(a) What is on the Seder plate, and why? (b) Which special mitzvot are observed on Seder Night? (c) The mnemonic poem for the Seder; (d) The four basic parts of the Seder: kiddush, narration, meal, Hallel; (e) The main themes told in the section of 'tell them to your child.
- Students should appreciate the position and importance of the Seder within the overall context of the festival of Pesach.
- The festival of Pesach overall, and the Seder in particular, represent the celebration of our independence as a free people who went out from slavery to freedom, and from dependence to redemption.
- This occasion is not celebrated with trumpets, marches and parades, but within the nuclear, or wider family.
- The central theme of the Seder Night is the story of the people of Israel as handed on to the younger generation for thousands of years – a story which emphasises the slavery and bitterness of life, but at the same time the dignity of Israel and its choice by G-d as His own people at the Assembly at Mt. Sinai.
- The festival retains its meaning in every generation: In every generation, each person is obligated to see himself/herself as having personally come out of Egypt.
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