03 Apr Pesach, Learning, and the Power of Our Children’s Questions
The four sons have always intrigued me. Labelled as distinctive even though their questions have far more similarities than differences, the wise son has, to me, seemed less wise and more of a ‘chuchum’. In the text he comes across as definitely the eldest in the family (something I am not), as he asks his ordered question and is answered with a list of instructions of dos and do nots. He is the only son who, in the Hagaddah, is not answered with a quote from Torah. But if we go back the source of the Chacham’s question and take the answer that is given there, it seems as if the Chacham is not one who is wise at the moment, but who will be wise if he hearkens to the response given by his parents.
Unlike the other three sons whose questions come from within the story of the Exodus in Sefer Shmot, the Chacham’s question features all the way towards the end of the Torah in Devarim, when Moshe is giving his final words and instructions to Bneii Yisrael before they enter Eretz Yisrael.
כִּֽי־יִשְׁאָלְךָ֥ בִנְךָ֛ מָחָ֖ר לֵאמֹ֑ר מָ֣ה הָעֵדֹ֗ת וְהַֽחֻקִּים֙ וְהַמִּשְׁפָּטִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּ֛ה ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ אֶתְכֶֽם׃
When, in time to come, your children ask you, “What mean the decrees, laws, and rules that our God ה has enjoined upon you?”
The first part of the answer is that which features as the answer to the Tam in the Hagaddah.
וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ לְבִנְךָ֔ עֲבָדִ֛ים הָיִ֥ינוּ לְפַרְעֹ֖ה בְּמִצְרָ֑יִם וַיֹּצִיאֵ֧נוּ ה מִמִּצְרַ֖יִם בְּיָ֥ד חֲזָקָֽה׃
you shall say to your children, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and ה freed us from Egypt with a mighty hand.
I think that in giving the Chacham’s question the Tam’s answer, the Hagaddah gives us a brilliant Peirush on what it means to be truly wise. Those who are not wise or astute get caught up in the chaos. It takes real wisdom to be able to distil a problem or an answer down into its fundamental values. I remember asking someone what was so great about the work of a particular lawyer (that I may or may not be related to) and the answer was that they were able to ignore the noise condense the matter into the essentials. Thus the Chacham is not so when he is verbose, but rather he is wise when he is able to be Tam – to simplify life into that which really matters.
However the answer to the Chacham in the Torah doesn’t stop there. It reminds him that Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim in order to bring us to Eretz Yisrael and that all that we are commanded to do is לְט֥וֹב לָ֙נוּ֙ כׇּל־הַיָּמִ֔ים – is for our lasting good. Sfrono states that in order to have true Yirat Hashem, to acquire “a measure of understanding of His greatness; all of this G’d wanted us to appreciate לטוב לנו כל הימים, for He desires to confer goodness, love, He has no egotistical motives.”
Sometimes it’s really hard to see the good. I think the last 18 months are an example of that. As we enter the second Pesach when we still have brothers languishing in the tunnels in Gaza, it is difficult to reconcile this with לְט֥וֹב לָ֙נוּ֙ כׇּל־הַיָּמִ֔ים.
But what we have had, what we have been mandated to have, is hope. The first hint at ‘hope’ in Torah is in the creation of the upper and lower seas. When Hashem separated the seas there as no ‘ki tov’. There is no ‘good’ in separation and strife.
But when Hashem gathers the waters together, יִקָּו֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם מִתַּ֤חַת הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ אֶל־מָק֣וֹם אֶחָ֔ד, we can see the start of Tivkah (related to the word יִקָּו֨וּ). And when the waters were gathered and united, then וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹהִ֖ים כִּי־טֽוֹב ‘Hashem saw that it was good’.
In order for us to feel , ט֥וֹב לָ֙נוּ֙, as was promised to the Chacham, we have to unite like the waters, and we have to be spring of hope eternal, כׇּל־הַיָּמִ֔ים.
And speaking of learning, hope, and unity—our Yavneh students have spent the past few weeks immersed in learning about Pesach. They have asked questions, debated ideas, and, in true Chacham fashion, sought meaning in the laws of the Seder. Their excitement is contagious. And while the Haggadah tells us that Pesach is a time for children to ask questions of their parents, we hope you will ask questions of your children this year—so that they can show you how much they have learned and how much they have grown.
This term, our students also brought to life the world of Mary Poppins on stage—a story where, much like in the Haggadah, it is the children who lead the way. Just as Mary Poppins teaches that “anything can happen if you let it,” Pesach teaches us that redemption can come at any moment—even when it seems impossible.
As we gather around our Seder tables this year, our hearts filled with nachas from our children and pain for our hostages, let us daven that the Geulah for our hostages happens NOW. And let us also focus on our unity—both as a Yavneh community and as Am Yisrael.
May we turn the separateness of “אֶחָד חָכָם, וְאֶחָד רָשָׁע” into “כְּאִישׁ אֶחָד בְּלֵב אֶחָד”—one people, with one heart.
This year, still in exile. Next year, as free people, in Jerusalem.
לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בִּירוּשָלַיִם הַבְּנוּיָה.
Morah Shula
