Mystery Seder

It was 6:15 on a weekday evening. As on all other evenings, chanichimot (campers) stood singing outside of the chadar (dining hall), patiently waiting for the meal to begin. Suddenly, the front doors of the chadar opened and Abraham and Sarah appeared before the crowd. 

“Welcome, everyone, to our annual Passover Seder!” They exclaimed loudly. “Please, come in and take a seat!”

And so the Seder began. 

As the chanichimot filed into the chadar, they found a table of biblical Jewish characters sitting before them. Joseph, Miriam, Ruth, Esther, Noah, Devorah, and Judith welcomed the children and invited everyone to eat! 

After all the chanichimot had finished eating, the ceremony began. When it came time to open the door for Elijah, though, it was discovered that HE WAS MISSING!

Chaos erupted in the chadar. Whispered speculations flew around the room. A few minutes later, a detective walked in; she announced that it had to have been one of the eight biblical characters who abducted Elijah!

And so the tochnit erev (evening program) began. Chanichimot split up into groups and went out in search of the abductor. They began with a scavenger hunt. Clues like “As flat as Masada, and as significant for the Jews, here you can play any sport you choose” (the basketball court) guided chanichimot to various locations. At each location, one of the eight biblical characters provided a brief alibi and explanation of why they couldn’t have abducted Elijah. For example, Jonah couldn’t have abducted Elijah because he was stuck inside a whale, and Miriam couldn’t have abducted Elijah because she was busy leading the Israelites across the Red Sea to the beat of her timbrel.

After hearing all of the characters’ alibis, the groups returned to the chadar where they realized that all of the alibis were sound! It couldn’t have been one of the biblical characters! It had to have been… THE DETECTIVE!

What ensued after this discovery was a machaneh-favorite game called zap in which chanichimot try to get from one location to another while avoiding being “zapped” with a flash light. If you get zapped, you have to return to the starting point. On this particular night, chanichimot were trying to catch the detective while avoiding her detective posse. 

An intense game of zap ended at the pool where Elijah and the detective were found! The detective was thrown in the pool and a wild night came to an end. 

- Emma Regev