Have a mentioned (a billion times) that I love teaching Seminary? It is the very, very best. One of my favorite things to do is to celebrate Passover with my kids; and we did so again today. It has been interesting this year to study the last days of Christ's life interwoven with the Christmas holidays. Studying the events of his death and celebrating his birth at the same time. Both events crucial to the salvation of mankind, how thankful I am for both.
Most of us know that Passover " is a Jewish holiday and that it's important". (A direct quote from one of my kids today.) Let me give you the Readers Digest version:
The Hebrews had been in captivity for hundreds of years, Moses was finally raised up to be their liberator. He went to Pharaoh and asked him to let his people go from Egypt. Of course Pharaoh didn't want to lose his massive amount of slave labor so he said "no'. After nine different plagues, the children of Israel were still captives of Egypt. For a tenth plague God was going to send an angel of death to kill the first born of every household in Egypt, including the Hebrew children. God told Moses to tell the Hebrews to slaughter an unblemished lamb and put the blood of the lamb on their door posts. If they faithfully did this, the angel of death would pass over them. Then, He told them, they would have a very short time to leave. They wouldn't have time to bake leavened bread, they were to make rations and be ready to flee. The faithful did this and were allowed to leave, they then left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea and wandered in the wilderness for 40 years sustained by manna.
After a time God told Moses that the miracle of Pharaoh should be remembered forever and from that time forward the Jews were to celebrate the Feast of the Passover in remembrance of the mercy of God. For centuries Jews all over the world have celebrated, even during WWII in prison camps. They would secretly save little things and in small groups celebrated this holiday even under the worst of conditions.
This is Mark, he was born and raised Jewish. He was bar mitzvahed and went to Temple with his family every week. Eventually he met a good Mormon girl and after 8 years and umpteen sets of missionaries, he was baptized a member. The next year he took his family to the temple, thereby helping the prophecy of Jews will come to know that Jesus is the Messiah, come true. He is a wonderful man with a sweet, sweet family. He has come for the past five years, even before he was a member of the Church. It is so humbling even now to hear him bear his testimony of Jesus Christ.
This is the Seder plate, it has a lamb shank, an egg, parsley & horseradish, and Charoset (an apple, walnut and honey combination), and a small bit of salt water. There is also a glass of wine (grape juice in our case) and matzo crackers in a separate basket. The book is the Haggadah, which is the 'script' for the Passover and the other thing is Shofar, which is used to call the people to the temple. (Yes, Rob H., I do believe it's yours, I've gotten a LOT of use out of it. )
This is what they represent:
Matzo: the unleavened bread the children of Israel took with them into the wilderness (there are three matzos wrapped in white cloth in the basket.)
Lamb: the lamb's blood on the door, the Lamb of God that will eventually come.
Egg: represents life and the temple which will be built someday in Israel.Parsley & Horseradish: The bitterness of bondage, the parsely is dipped into the salt water to represent the tears of the slaves in Egypt.
Charoset: represents the mortar the slaves used, also represents bonding ourselves to God
The silver cup is a "Kiddush" cup, the officiant drinks the wine from it. (Legend has it that the 'Holy Grail' of Indiana Jones searching, is the kiddush cup used by Jesus during the Last Supper, which was the Passover feast)
(I can't find my regular menorah, so I had to use my Hanukkah menorah, it has nine stems, the regular ones have 7, representing each day of the creation)
My personal favorite in my class.
Another couple of my favorites!
It was a fun and enlightening experience for our class. Thanks Mark! (Karen make sure he sees this!)
PS. We are celebrating Hanukkah on Dec. 22nd. You're all welcome to come!
(My husband just had a heart attack! hahaha!)
13 comments:
Can I come to your class? You are way cool teacher!
That's cool! At the Univ. of Az LDS institute, we did the passover every spring. We were so good and authentic at it, that the Jewish Student Union next door to us, would come celebrate it with us! Because of our accuracy and we had a larger and better acessable building. Some of our institue teachers were so well versed and studied in all things Hebrew!
Mark is really great, even if he does forget that passover is in the spring.
I love this, just love it. Any time we can teach our children about other cultures and faith, we get 1 step closer to being truly Christlike. Bless you!
I wish I was in your Seminary class! One of my Seminary teachers was my dentist, which I accidently saw nekkid. Oh the horror of it all!
Thanks for the lesson!
i will move to california when my kids are in high school, just so you can be their seminary teacher.
Love this.
I have a sister in-law that was Jewish until she met my brother-in-law. They married and she started going to church and meeting with the missionaries. One day she told me that I Know That My Redeemer Lives was her favorite hymn. At this point I didn't know she knew this but I knew she would be baptized.
L'chaim and shalom.
I've always loved to know more about other cultures and religions. My grandparents served their mission in Israel and instilled in us a great love for the Jewish culture.
We had a Seder when I was in college, I was a wonderful experience. I had good seminary teachers, but you put them to shame.
Someday I hope you will go on a CES mission and spread your wisdom to the world!
We are having our first annual Hanukkah party on the 22nd, too. Thanks for the inspiration!!
Thans for the pub. Where is my check! You neglected to tell them I almost died from eating parsley and matzah at the same time. Note to self, take drink of grape juice between bites.
I concur with the others, you are a great seminary teacher and I cant wait until my kids are in your class. Next year in Jerusalem!
I am really fighting the temptation to forward this post to my son's early AM seminary teacher (who is a great guy).
What lucky kids they are to have you as a teacher!
Oh, I would love to have heard Mark bear his testimony of Christ. What an amazing activity for the youth!
I cannot believe you have favorites in your seminary class ;) Just Kiddin'!
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