Chocolate Seder

At any traditional Passover Seder you will hear the youngest child ask, "Why is this night different from all other nights?" Well, when you are attending a Chocolate Seder, you finally know the answer.

Only on "this night" do parents sit idly by while their children consume chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate!

(Wondering why there is an orange on the seder plate? I will explain at the end of this article.)

Last weekend, the boys and I attended our synagogue's Annual Chocolate Seder. Actually, since the experience is so rich, they limit this celebration to every other year.




So what's a Chocolate Seder? It's a fun way for Jewish kids to learn the order of the Passover Seder in a fun and unique way. Actually, the word "seder" is hebrew for "order". So learning the order of the seder is a bit of an oxy moron.


Here's a run down of what we did:

• Drank 4 glasses of chocolate milk instead of 4 glasses of wine.
• Ate some green M&Ms to represent the Karpas (greens of spring) which traditionally is parsley.
• Ate the bitter chocolate to represent Maror (bitter herbs) which is traditionally horse-radish.
• Broke the middle matzah into two pieces. One piece was then hidden until later for the children to find. The hidden matzah is referred to as the Afikomen. (Of course, since this was a chocolate seder, the matzah was chocolate covered matza. Yum.)
• Ate smores to represent the Hillel Sandwich which is traditionally two pieces of matzah, charoset, & bitter herbs. Smores definately taste much better!

• Finally, we ate strawberries as our traditional meal. The strawberries were served to give our tastebuds a break from all that chocolate. However, the die-hard chocolate lovers dipped their strawberries in Nutella.

We all listened to the rabbi, who recounted the Passover Story. This is the recounting of how the Jewish people were once slaves in the land of Egypt. There is always a point in the story where the "four questions" are asked (usually by the youngest child in attendance).



Here are the 4 questions - chocolate seder style:



1. Why is this night different from all other nights? On all other nights we eat either peanut butter, chocolate, or a combination of both. On this night, why only chocolate?


2. On all other nights we eat a little bit of any kind of chocolate. On this night why do we eat so much?


3. On all other nights we eat many different flavors or ice cream, but why, all of sudden, this is changed only to chocolate?

4. On all other nights we eat complete, well-balanced meals. Why do we eat only dessert tonight?



After we heard the answers to the four questions, which all had something to do with being thankful for the "gift" of chocolate... then everyone (young and old alike) got up to search for the Afikohen (the piece of chocolate covered matzah) that was hidden earlier. I think we all needed an excuse to walk around for awhile.

The Afikomen hiders were quite dastardly when it came to finding the perfect hiding place. Way up a tree. Thank goodness they were limber enough to retrieve the Afikohen themselves and give it to the kids.

Finally, we poured a cup of chocolate milk in hopes that Elijah the prophet would come join us. Elijah must be lactose intolerant... because he failed to put in an appearance.

With that we concluded our seder. It was a lot of fun. But there really comes a point where you finally say "Dayenu" (which is Hebrew for... "it would have been enough").


Why is there an orange on the seder plate?

This tradition stems from a man's response to women's emerging equality in Jewish life, according to the Haggadah. The man's response was, "A woman belongs on the bimah as much as an orange belongs on the seder plate."