Courtesy photo Preschoolers Ethan Holzer, Zoe Binus, Tenley Okonak and Rozalyn Binus hold up matzah, bread made without yeast. The Israelities made bread without yeast for their journey because they had to leave Egypt quickly and there was no time to let it rise.

Passover celebrates the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt and the beginning of Israel as a nation.

It is a story that the Bible instructs Jews to celebrate and recount during the Passover observance. The story is part of the Haggadah, a Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. It includes a narrative of the Exodus and fulfills the command to pass down the story of freedom and liberation to the children.

During the annual reading, children learn of the 10 plagues experienced in Egypt and how Pharaoh eventually let the Israelites leave.

To give young children a better perspective of the story, the older students in the Jewish Sunday school classes led them on a journey last week by creating a simulated “Nile River” in the social hall at Agudath Achim Congregation.

Cantor Ben Matis, spiritual leader at the synagogue, said by teaching the younger children, the older youth become more acquainted with the story.

“When you teach, you learn,” he said. “You have to know what you are talking about.”

Another way of learning is to ask questions.

During a Seder, a youth (often the youngest child) asks four questions. Each one is preceded with “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

They are:

1. On all other nights we eat either bread or matzah. Why, on this night, do we eat only matzah?

2. On all other nights we eat herbs of any kind. Why, on this night, do we eat only bitter herbs?

3. On all other nights, we do not dip our herbs even once. Why, on this night, do we dip them twice?

4. On all other nights, we eat either sitting or reclining, Why, on this night, do we eat while reclining?

Matis said the questions play an important role in the Passover celebration and help children to understand what it is about and to inspire conversation.

He said the younger kids loved how the older youths taught them the story by following the river.

Stops included baby Moses being hidden in reeds along the river to protect him from Pharaoh’s order to kill the male babies, the burning bush where God spoke to Moses as an adult, and the hitting of scallions on the table to illustrate how the slave masters beat and mistreated the Israelite slaves.

At another stop, the kids learned about matzah or unleavened bread. The Israelites made bread without yeast for their journey, because they had to leave Egypt quickly, and there was no time to let it rise.