When Moses met Pharaoh – Passover craft
Posted on: 22 March, 2012
Last year my daughter was four, old enough to stay awake for our Passover Seder, but not quite old enough to sing the four questions, the role traditionally assigned to the youngest child. Instead, she was delighted to score what seemed to her to be the best job in the world: Chief Frog Wrangler. However, frogs alone do not constitute ten plagues, so I set about trying to concoct something visual for the other nine. And once we had the plagues, we needed someone to inflict them on. I have recently discovered that you can obtain actual figurines of Moses and Pharaoh, but not from anywhere near where we live. Thus it came to pass that Moses and Pharaoh were created from cardboard tubes and pipecleaners, and they made our Seder so much fun that we have booked them to appear again this year.
Initially this was going to be a Passover craft for my Shabbat Tot group and I found instructions for making a cardboard Moses on the internet. My first effort was decorated by my daughter, who may have been subconsciously channelling Joseph and his Technicolour Dream Coat.
So I decided to dress Moses up more elegantly, by glueing some fabric scraps to the outside of the cardboard tube rather than using paper. At this point I realised that the paper arms would not really match the new look, so I ditched them in favour of threading through a pipecleaner. I also decided I wanted a less cartoon-like face, so I used google images to search for a more realistic (?) version of Moses. This returned way too many photos of Charlton Heston, but eventually I found one of the very talented Ben Kingsley.
Let my people go!
For Pharaoh I also wrapped fabric around a cardboard tube and inserted pipecleaner arms. For his head I attached a picture of King Tut. (I know this is actually his death mask, but seriously, how much more Pharaoh-y could you get?) The finishing touch was bending his arms so that he is “walking like an Egyptian”. Personally I think he looks awesome!
Bwa-ha-ha, I think NOT, Moses!
So, last Seder Moses and Pharaoh battled it out, and my daughter had a great time showering down plagues of hail/locusts/frogs etc. Then a few days later I discovered she had fed him to a lego crocodile for good measure. That’ll teach him to be mean to us!
2 Responses to "When Moses met Pharaoh – Passover craft"
[…] future menu suggestions, a list of things we’ve made especially for Pesach (from placemats to Moses & Pharaoh figurines), and space to list any new traditions we develop or things we want to remember for the following […]
Joyful Jewish 
22 March, 2012 at 10:01 pm
Brava! Ben Kingsley/Moses vs. King Tut/Ramses II and a LEGO croc. There is something about that pipe cleaner arm clutching the pipe cleaner staff I find particularly affecting. It gives Moses a bookish slouch.
We’ll be making the figs and the croc, for sure. Thanks for documenting.