Good friends Asher Dicton, 10, and Sofia Kaplan, 11, both of Kingston, are in the same grade at Chester Street School and have attended Hebrew School together. During Wednesday evening’s community seder at the JCC in Kingston, they broke bread together.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
In-person seder first since pandemic
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During a light-hearted moment at the community seder, some of the youngest guests jumped like frogs as the gathering remembered the swarm of frogs, one of 10 plagues that convinced the Pharaoh of ancient Egypt to release the Jewish people from their bondage.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Rabbi Larry Kaplan holds a microphone to amplify 8-year-old Eden Dicton’s voice as she chants a ritual question in Hebrew.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
The coaster includes symbols of the 10 plagues of Egypt. As the rabbi read each one aloud, guests were encouraged to blot out the corresponding symbol with a drop of wine.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
About 90 people gathered Wednesday evening at the Friedman JCC in Kingston for the first in-person community Passover seder celebration since the pandemic.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Before the dinner, Charles Rappaport of Wilkes-Barre recalled a time when he was the youngest person at a seder dinner, and therefore asked the traditional questions. ‘It made me feel special for a few minutes,’ he said with a smile.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
‘It’s wonderful, the fact that we can all be together,’ Nancy Messinger of Wilkes-Barre said.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Rabbi Larry Kaplan, spiritual leader of Temple Israel, reads from the Haggadah during the seder service.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Rabbi David Kaplan, spiritual leader of Temple Ohav Zedek, visited the gathering and told a joke about a man being knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth II, forgetting the Latin response he was supposed to say and mumbling a Hebrew question instead. So the Queen turned to Prince Philip and asked ‘Why is this knight different from all the others?’ Get it?
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
You might think it’s easy to ask four questions.
Why is this night different from all other nights? Why are we eating unleavened bread? And bitter herbs? And, why is it OK if we don’t sit up straight for this meal?
It wouldn’t be too difficult to ask those questions in your normal speaking voice, in English, would it?
But as 90 people gathered Wednesday night at the Friedman JCC in Kingston to celebrate the first in-person community seder dinner since the pandemic, the children and adults who asked those questions sang them. In Hebrew.
“I’ve known that since I was a child,” a smiling Jeff Lubin said after singing one of the questions into a microphone held by Rabbi Larry Kaplan.
Other brave question askers included another grown-up, Marsha Lebenson, as well as 8-year-old Eden Dicton, her 10-year-old brother Asher Dicton, and their friend Sofia Kaplan, 11, who is the rabbi’s daughter.
At one point the rabbi had a question of his own, about the difference between the large piece of round matzoh bread that graced each table, and the smaller square pieces of unleavened bread.
“The round one is more historically accurate,” Asher Dicton said, adding that the square kind is easier to mass produce.
So, if the square ones are easier to mass produce, the rabbi asked, how would you make the round kind?
“You take 2 cups of flour … ” Asher said, ready to recite the whole recipe until, after a little give and take, Sofia triumphantly squealed out the answer her father wanted. Traditional matzoh is made “By hand.”
The Passover seder celebrates the freedom the Jewish people experienced when they were finally freed from bondage after years of slavery in ancient Egypt. They left Egypt in haste, without waiting for bread to rise or for the Egyptian leader, Pharaoh, to change his mind.
Pharaoh had finally agreed to release them after Egypt had been visited by 10 plagues, ranging from swarms of frogs and locust to darkness over the land and the death of firstborn children.
In one of the most light-hearted moments of the evening, about eight youngsters got up and jumped like frogs to the tune of a song about Pharaoh finding “frogs on his nose and frogs on his toes.”
The evening could not be entirely light-hearted, however, as the rabbi noted, “In every generation somebody rises up and tries to destroy us. It’s even happening today.”
Still, a spirit of gratitude filled the JCC on Wednesday evening, as the Jewish community and their non-Jewish friends broke bread together and sang the refrain of a tune called “Dayenu.”
The word “Day” means “enough” in Hebrew, the rabbi said, and the prayer means each of these blessings alone would be enough:
“That Adonai took us out of Egypt … divided the sea and led us across on dry land … took care of us in the desert for 40 years and fed us manna … gave us Shabbat.”
After a few years of Zoom seders due to the pandemic, the JCC’s CEO Gary Bernstein said, it was rewarding to finally celebrate in the same room
“It’s wonderful,” Nancy Messinger of Wilkes-Barre agreed. “The fact that we can all be together.”
