Teens of Hebrew High gathered Tuesday night before Passover to embark in a different kind of Bedikat Hametz (Search for Hametz). Rabbi Aviva Funke and educator Jeremiah Kaplan designed a program to help teens recognize that the hametz we search for before Passover is not just about ridding our homes of breads and cookies, but ridding ourselves of the inner puffiness that we all carry.

“We wanted our students to recognize that true liberation comes from our willingness to change and drop habits that are harmful to ourselves and our relationships. This evening gave our students a chance to explore their own personal puffiness (egocentric behaviors, judgmental attitudes, negative self-talk….) and free themselves from the bondage those behaviors can have,” shared Rabbi Aviva.

With over 40 small “puffed” balloons hidden outside the Ina Levine JCC campus, teens used their flashlights to find the HIDDEN HAMETZ in the dark. Once found, they came inside for a Torah study which explored the connections between yeast in the hametz and our puffed ego. Then, students popped their balloons to find blank paper inside, recognizing that they had to uncover their own hidden hametz. Once they figured it out, they wrote them down and we went outside to burn them.

Teens feedback called this program “powerful” “interesting” and “a different perspective of Passover than I had ever had before.”

“Clearing out internal Hametz isn’t easy. Often we feel resistance: we don’t want to let go of an old story, or to forgive someone who’s hurt us, or to believe that we ourselves can be forgiven for our missed marks. It requires some scrubbing, metaphysically speaking. Our work is discerning which of our old stories still serve us, and which have become Hametz that we need to shed in order to move toward liberation.” – Rabbi Rachel Barenblatt

Want your teen to be part of programs like this? Learn more at www.HHPHX.org 

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