Students Use Rube Goldberg Machine For Seder

This isn't a typical way to kick off Passover, but it certainly looks fun. Students at Technion in Israel decided to combine their mechanical and engineer skills to create a Rube Goldberg machine for their Seder dinner. Seder is a feast held at the beginning of Passover, and it involves communities and family members retelling the story of the liberation of Israelites in the book of Shemot, or Exodus.

A Rube Goldberg machine, for you sad, sad people who have never experienced the joy that is falling into an Internet black hole of watching videos of them, is a deliberately complex or over-designed contraption designed to do a very simple task via a series of chain reactions. What's the point of such a complicated machine? Well, it's a lot of fun to watch. You see Rube Goldberg machines in a lot of cartoons or other whimsical settings. Think of the elaborate designs people create with dominos just to watch them all get knocked over — that's essentially how a Rube Goldberg machine works.

Rather than retell the liberation story out loud as is traditionally done at Seder dinner, the students at Technion used the Rube Goldberg machine. The clever machine showed key events such as baby Moses traveling down the Nile in the basket, the burning bush, the seven plagues, and even the parting of the seas.

What does the machine ultimately do? It unveils a delicious plate of food in front of the team of designers, engineers, and architects that put the Rube Goldberg machine together. Watch the full video below:

Images: Technion/YouTube