Afikomen Treasure Hunt

by Serene Victor

I hope your Pesach preparations are going well. Here is a fun activity to send home to families with educational value. It is especially good at getting all the kids, regardless of age, to cooperate in the search.

Hag Kasher v'Sameach!

Afikomen Treasure Hunt (from the Kohl Jewish Teacher Center)

Objectives:

• To add excitement and fun to the Seder.
• To practice finding chapter and verse in the Tanakh.

Materials:

• Clue Sheet
• Tanakh

How to Play:

1. The leader of the Seder hides the afikomen in what will be the last stop of the treasure hunt.
2. When it is time to eat it, the leader presents clue #1 to those who must find it. Each clue only gives chapter and verse.
3. Participants must first look up the chapter and verse, and then infer the hiding place of Clue #2. If they have interpreted the first clue correctly, they will find the second clue which will lead them to the third and so on until they are led to the afikomen.

Afikomen Treasure Hunt Clues

• Clue #1: Exodus 35:16
  "the altar of burnt offering, its copper grating, its poles and all its furnishing...."
  
  (Location of Clue #2 - oven)
  
  
• Clue #2: Ezekiel 5:1
  "...take thee a sharp sword, as a barber's razor shalt thou take it unto thee, and cause it to pass upon thy head and upon they beard; then take thee balances to weigh and divide the hair.."
  (Location of Clue #3 - scales)
  
  
• Clue #3: Ezekiel 1:27
  "And I saw as the color of electrum, as the appearance of fire round enclosing it..."
  
  (Location of Clue #4 - TV)
  
  
• Clue #4: Amos 4:6
  "And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities."
  
  (Location of Clue #5 - next to the toothpaste)
  
  
• Clue #5: Exodus 12:7
  "And thou shall take of the blood and put it on the two side posts and on the lintel above the houses..."
  
  (Location of Clue #6 - behind mezuzah
  
  
• Clue #6: Genesis 19:26
  "Lot's wife looked back and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt."
  
  (Location of Afikomen - near salt shaker)

Please feel free to share this with others. We ask that it always include the following tag line: "Prepared by Serene Victor, National Consultant for Synagogue Education, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, for use by its affiliated congregations."