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I'm going to be at a seder this year with young children who are familiar with the basic structure of the haggadah. Some will likely have some of the classic divrei torah prepared for them to say. I'm looking for a way to "spice up" the seder.

Has anyone been to a seder with similar company and found it to be a unique and effective educational experience? What techniques did they use? Quick interesting divrei torah? Themed divrei torah? Skits? Games? What about pausing the haggadah in the middle and switching texts to: Chumash? A picture book about korban pesach? In what other unique ways can I "cause the children to ask questions" and involve them in the seder?

All ideas and suggestions are welcome.

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I don't know about you, but: Tora + talmud during the seder = boring. It is very rare that all of the family members are meeting each other like in the seder. So, my best advice is: 1) Finish the seder 1st part(untill the food) as fast as you can. 2) Eat, talk, drink and have fun with each other untill the end of the night. 3) Only the once who will want to, will finish the 2nd part of the seder. – user2051993 Feb 15 at 0:39
See the first two pages of this pdf: stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/r_schwab_haggadah.pdf. Also, The Little Midrash Says is a helpful hagadah for this purpose. – b a Feb 15 at 1:49
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@user2051993 It seems you haven't looked at my user profile. I find Torah + Talmud to be quite interesting in fact. My best advice to you is: find some other time of the year (including the next morning!) to catch up with your relatives and save the one night every year where all Jews throughout the millennia have discussed the Exodus for just that. – Double AA♦ Feb 15 at 2:21

2 Answers

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It's well worth listening to this shiur of Rabbi Reuven Leuchter talmid of Rav Shlomo Wolbe zt"l: http://ravleuchter.com/?p=435 It’s titled Hagodo 1. Here are a few of the main points: but they are no substitute for viewing and hearing this shiur. Questions about these points may arise from my paraphrasing. Please listen to the shiur.

1) Klal Yisroel went out – we as individuals went out only as part of the klal.

2) The Borei Olom personally intervened. The emphasis is "Ilo lo hotzi HKBH" (not if we wouldn’t have come out things would have been different.) This intervention is the basis of my life. I have to experience that! Knowledge alone is insufficient.

3) The part about Rebbe Elozor ben Azariah is to show that HKBH enters the picture at all times and not that he aged overnight.

4) Message of the 4 sons is that HKBH intervenes according to your capacities! The Rosho is cultured; his view is that Yetzias Mitzrayim is not relevant to me. He has to realise that he can only go out if he is part of the klal. The Aino yodea lisheol is a modern person intelligent person. He says holydays commemorate the old times. He looks to the future. He honours what we do. He just says it just doesn’t speak to me. His answer is "Yochol mirosh chodesh." We went out of mitzraim in order to eat the matzo. We are not celebrating Passover to remember the past. The past happened because of now.

5) Rav Leuchter says that the Seder is NOT about saying Divrei Torah.

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What techniques would you use to impart this meaningful information? – Double AA♦ Mar 21 '12 at 16:39
Please see my comment to your other question. – Avrohom Yitzchok Mar 21 '12 at 19:33
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re #5 ) It's very nice of Rav Leuchter to argue on the tosefta pesachim 10:8 but I think I'll stick to the more traditional sources. – Double AA♦ Mar 25 '12 at 20:22
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+25

As a person who has had numerous seders with young children I would highly recommend they be given the opportunity to act out the yeztiah story if they are so inclined; perhaps during Shulchan Orech.

Also, maybe for the 10 plagues you can use different manipulatives to show each of them (or act them out).

If a child has a D'var Torah they learned in school, let them say it and be excited to share with everyone else, and have everyone else appear excited to hear from them.

Really though, I think the skits work best to make the seder "more interesting" and to involve everyone.

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