Prepare An Original Midrash (Teachers' Guide)

(Adapted from The Art of Jewish Living: The Passover Seder, Teacher's Manual and Implementation Guide, by Dr. Ron Wolfson with Joel Lurie Grishaver, published by The Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs)

Objectives

• Introduce midrash as a form of seder participation.
• Provide students with an opportunity to personally relive the Exodus.
• Create material for students to use as their contribution to the family seder.

Lesson

• Define midrash as a creative interpretation of text. Explain that the rabbis used midrash as a way of exploring the meaning of text and finding deeper meaning. Ask students to offer examples of midrash that they know.
• Discuss ways that writing midrash can be applied to the Passover story. What parts of the story could benefit from creative writing and deeper explanation? Explain that they also fulfill the obligation of personalizing the Exodus.
• Answer some of the following questions as they relate to Jewish bondage to bring students into the subject for creative writing.
• What is a slave?
• What is it like to be a slave? What jobs did slaves have?
• What kinds of freedoms are curtailed during enslavement?
• What did you hate about being a slave? Did you like anything?
• How was your family and the community impacted by slavery?
• When Moses said that you would soon be free, what did you think?
• When you were freed and soon to leave Egypt, what did you hope for?
• What was the best part about being free?

Have students write their own midrash from the perspective of a Jewish slave about their experience of bondage.

Send the midrashim home with the students to be read at their family sederim.