Seder Meal / Holy Week / Bible Study

.Our Bible Study teacher put on the Seder Meal for us during bible study this week. What an educational and informative day.
The Seder is a ritual performed by a community or by multiple generations of a family, involving a retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. This story is in the Book of Exodus (Shemot) in the Hebrew Bible. The Seder itself is based on the Biblical verse commanding Jews to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt: "You shall tell your child on that day, saying, 'It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'" (Exodus 13:8)

The Passover Seder Plate (ke'ara) is a special plate containing six symbolic foods used during the Passover Seder. Each of the six items arranged on the plate have special significance to the retelling of the story of the Exodus from Egypt. The seventh symbolic item used during the meal—a stack of three matzot—is placed on its own plate on the Seder table

Best thing to do if you are interested is go to www.Wikipedia.com and look up Seder Meal. They explain it all so well. Not as well as our Seder Meal but such a wonderful family tradition to follow. You will understand the picture below much better. Just to much to write.

Since the retelling of the Exodus to one's child is the object of the Seder experience, much effort is made to arouse the interest and curiosity of the children and keep them awake during the meal. To that end, questions and answers are a central device in the Seder ritual. By encouraging children to ask questions, they will be more open to hearing the answers.
The most famous question which the youngest child asks at the Seder is the Mah Nishtanah - "Why is this night different from all other nights?" After the asking of these questions, the main portion of the Seder, Magid, gives over the answers in the form of a historical review. Also, at different points in the Seder, the leader of the Seder will cover the matzot and lift their cup of wine; then put down the cup of wine and uncover the matzot—all to elicit questions from the children.

After the Seder Meal we were once again enlightened with Lynda Ryan describing the journey Jesus took starting on Good Friday through Easter morning. The 4th and 5th graders, over 7 1/2 months built the city of Jerusalem as it looked in the days of Jesus.

If anyone is interested in seeing the this model it is in the University United Methodist Church Atrium.

The children did an amazing job with Lynda Ryan heading it all up. What a blessing those children had in making this and learning about the Holy Week along with biblical times. They had to have gotten a real feel for what it was like to walk along side of Jesus.

Below is the poorer section of Jerusalem. The children made this houses. If you'll notice on some of the houses there are stairs attached to them. They would climb up the stairs to their roof tops. One reason to call out to their neighbors.   

I tried to show the whole city with the temple on the left.

 

Thank you Molly and Lynda. I have learned so much on that day and I will not forget it for a long time.