VESTAL, NY (WIVT/WBGH) – Some young students were preparing for a religious celebration of freedom that’s coming up this week.

Children at Hillel Academy in Vestal participated in a Model Seder at the Jewish school today.

The Passover Seder is a traditional meal held on the first night of Passover which this year begins at sundown on Wednesday.

Passover celebrates the sparing of the Jews from the 10th plague and their release from slavery in Egypt.

The Seder involves a number of rituals and symbolic items on the table and on each plate.

They include an egg to represent sacrifice and bitter herbs to signify the bitterness of slavery.

Rabbi Moshe Schmaryahu says telling stories and asking questions is important to the Seder and at their school.

“All of our work teaching at Hillel is to instill confidence to ask questions. Although we don’t know all of the answers, but they ask them. I think the most important part of education is to ask questions. The whole night of the Seder, you have to ask so many questions. Why, why, why, why. Very important.”

Schmaryahu says that the goal was to help prepare the children for the Seder with their family on Wednesday.

And that included learning to sing the many songs that are part of the ritual.