Our seder was a remarkable experience. For more than 5 hours the community smiled and sang together, with many deep and meaningful discussions interspersed throughout the evening.
But perhaps the most memorable moment took place before the seder had even begun. Being that we started before candle lighting time, we offered the men the opportunity to put on Tefillin. One man, attending the seder along with his seven year old son, politely refused.
The young boy, curious about the strange looking black leather boxes and straps, asked his father, “Vos is dos? - what is this?” The father then decided that he would put on Tefillin, as a lesson to his child that there is more to being Jewish than attending a Passover seder once a year.
Children are the primary focus on Passover, from the four questions, to the rituals we perform solely to make the children ask. This desire to impart Jewish knowledge and pride to a child from a man who barely had any Jewish knowledge of his own, and who had only moments before refused to take part in it, epitomizes the Passover spirit.
