Want to know the secret to home-schooling? Look no further than the Seder night table
In our present situation, in which many quarantined families must resort to home-schooling, perhaps it's apt to ask, what is the ideal method of Jewish education?
Historically, formal Jewish education was rudimentary and rigid, and often proved ineffective. This could be because "many teachers were highly unqualified and neither learned nor creative", as noted by Shaul Stampfer, emeritus professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, when describing the chedarim (private school for young Jewish children) of 19th-century Eastern Europe. The shtetl kids' days were long, filled with rote learning and the fear of corporal punishment, much like those at school in Victorian Britain.
Eine Streitfrage aus dem Talmud by Carl Schleicher
For an ideal model of Jewish schooling we should perhaps look back thousands rather than hundreds of years, to an entirely different kind of education: Seder night. The purpose of Seder is not merely to flick through a wine-stained Haggadah or to feast at a lively family meal (although those are important). The primary aim is to share in the story of the Exodus, to pass on to the next generation what happened “on that day when we left Egypt”. To achieve this effectively, rabbis of the Talmud proposed radical teaching methods.
Our first task on Seder night, the sages instructed, is to capture our children’s attention. The Seder leader must act unconventionally in order to move the children to ask questions. The rabbis understood that children would only listen if they sensed the need to; if they were in search of answers. The Talmud recommended that, with energy and fun, one should distribute roasted seeds and nuts (the ancient equivalent of Haribo), yank food from your child’s hands, and even carry the dining table into another room, all in order to provoke curiosity until the youth demand to know what’s going on. It is only after the children begin questioning, eagerly anticipating an answer, that we can begin our response: “Our forefathers were slaves in Egypt…”
Secondly, we are instructed to tailor the Exodus story and its messages to each listener: young and old, the experienced and the beginners. This ensures that everyone gains insight and no one is deprived of an education. It was for this reason in the past that some rabbis even recited the Haggadah in the common vernacular and not its original Rabbinic Hebrew, so everyone present could understand. This is the message of the 'four sons', after all. “According to the ability of his son, a father should teach him.” But that's not to say the teaching should be a lecture, more a chance to learn by doing.
We eat matza, the bread of affliction, chew bitter herbs and dip vegetables into salt water ('tears') in order to taste and feel the suffering of our forefathers. We also recline and drink four cups of wine like Roman aristocrats in order to physically demonstrate our status as free people. Far from being arcane rituals, these practices create a wholesome learning experience like no other, utilising our body and senses to retell – almost relive – our ancestors' journey from slavery to freedom.
By re-enacting the Exodus story, a rich abundance of traditions arose in many Eastern Jewish communities. One Yemenite Jewish custom, for example, has the Seder leader encircle the table with a knapsack slung over one shoulder and, whilst leaning on a walking stick, dramatically recount their miraculous escape from Egypt. Persian Jews take turns at lightly beating each other with spring onions, mimicking the Egyptian taskmasters' beating of their Jewish subjects. These 'beatings' are of course nothing like the whipping and slapping of old chedarim and Victorian classrooms.
The purpose of Seder night, as outlined by the Talmudic sages of old, is to be a fun, yet informative experience. It's home-schooling at its best. A lesson filled with curiosity, joy, personal attention and theatrics that's guaranteed to keep everyone engaged, whatever their age. A worthy model of Jewish education indeed.
By Gav Cohn
Header photo: Seder night Passover at the house of Hugo Brill, given by Wilhelm Buchheim, Germany, 1934 © Center for Jewish History, NYC