Rabbi Milton Kroopnick explains God’s invisibility to Aidan Itzkin at a model seder shared by preschoolers and seniors.
Photos by Elaine Durbach
Advertisement
April 9, 2009
About 12 kids and 20 elderly people, with assorted helpers and guests, gathered to take part in the model seder led by Rabbi Milton Kroopnick last Wednesday, April 1, at the Chelsea assisted-living facility in Fanwood.
The children were from the four-year-olds class at the JCC of Central New Jersey’s Early Childhood Education program; the seniors — Jewish and non-Jewish — were residents of the facility.
Given that it was a week before Passover and the middle of the morning, no one was expecting the whole kneidlach-to-brisket menu, but many of the seder basics were there — including matza and macaroons, grape juice, some rousing songs, and — perhaps most important — some very probing questions.
They weren’t the traditional Passover Four Questions, though some of the youngsters knew all about those. These were inquiries triggered by the rabbi’s careful explanation of what the holiday commemorates. Kroopnick, who serves as chaplain for the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey, described the foods and objects present on a seder plate and table and what each one symbolizes.
“Why were the slaves mean?” asked one little girl, a little confused by the talk of evil and oppression. Kroopnick gently corrected her, explaining that it was Pharaoh who was mean, and the Jews did nothing wrong to deserve their horrible treatment.
“Why is God invisible?” five-year-old Aidan Itzkin asked, to the surprise of his mother, Marla, one of the parents accompanying the group. Kroopnick raised his eyebrows and beamed with pleasure at that one. “That’s a very good question,” he told Aidan, and to the older participants he added, “Out of the mouths of babes….”
He went on to say, “God is not a human being, or an animal, or a flower. He is a great spirit. He is like air, which is clear. God is all over, in this room, in the heavens, beyond the sky. He sees everything and hears everything.” The children listened very solemnly to that, though some of them looked a little perturbed by the thought.
Preschool children from the JCC perform a Passover song at a model seder they shared with residents of the Chelsea assisted-living facility in Fanwood.
Though new perhaps to the theology, the young participants showed themselves to be experts in a number of Passover songs. Their teachers, Andrea Weisenthal and Judi Oxman, led them in a boisterous march around the seder table, singing a song about the Ten Plagues, complete with some great Egyptian-art-style miming, and then another one about hopping frogs that had them jumping like popping corn — to the delight of their audience.
Mildred Roth, a fresh-faced 90-year-old, said this was the third year she attended one of Kroopnick’s model seders. “I just come because I enjoy it so much,” she said. “I nearly forgot this morning; I’m so glad I got here in time.”
Sitting beside her was Mildred Bobis, who said, “It was just beautiful. The rabbi has a very good voice, and the children are so well behaved.”
For Kroopnick, this was just one of his many pre-Passover gatherings. Working with the chaplaincy program of the Central federation, he visits nursing homes and hospitals at holiday times and throughout the year, to provide pastoral counseling and bring Jewish residents some of the religious rituals and familiar traditions they can’t access on their own. Volunteers with the program — adults and teens — also make such visits.
Anyone wanting to request a visit for a friend or loved one, or to volunteer or provide financial support for the program, can contact Debbie Rosenwein at 908-889-5334 drosenwein@jfedcnj.org.
Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com
--TOP--
