Baruch HaMakom, Baruch Hu. Baruch she’nosan Torah l’amo Yisrael, Baruch Hu. K’neged arba bonim dibra Torah. Echad chacham, echad rasha, echad tam, v’echad sh’eino yodei’a lishol. Blessed is Hashem (Who is the Place of Everything), Blessed is He. Blessed is Hashem for giving the Torah to His Nation Yisrael, Blessed is He. Corresponding to the four varieties of sons speaks the Torah. The wise one, the wicked one, the simple one and the one who doesn’t know yet how to ask.
Thus, the Haggadah introduces the issue, and establishes the central importance, of educating all types of children on the night of the seder.
Pharaoh tried mightily, and in many ways, to eradicate the Jewish child. He asked the midwives to abort them, he commanded them to be drowned, he slaughtered them and drained their blood to treat his leprosy, and he buried them alive in the walls of Pitom and Ramses. He also embarked on a campaign to stop Jewish births. The term “perech,” literally translated as crushing labor, is also connected to the Hebrew word “paroches,” or curtain. This signifies his strategy of blocking family relations by separating men and women, as would a curtain, by keeping men in the field and women at home. Furthermore, Pharaoh banned the use of mikvas as yet one final attempt to impede the birth of more Jewish children.
Yet, miraculously, he failed miserably and we experienced a population explosion unparalleled in history, increasing in 210 years from a family of seventy to a nation of many millions. This is one reason why, on the seder night, the children are the stars of the show and the focus of our primary attention.
Even more important is the fact that Pesach is the anniversary of the birth of the Jewish people. We were chosen because our ancestor Avraham was permitted to pass the traditions to his descendants. Thus, from year to year on our national anniversary, our custom is not to dress in green, but to inculcate our loved ones with the fundamentals of our beliefs.
The Kolbo and the Shibolei Haleket clarify that the four phases of the blessing Baruch HaMakom etc., correspond directly to the four children. Here we find a very important lesson for our day and age: parents should be grateful even for a wicked child. This at first sounds like an incredible novelty. But Rav Tzadok HaKohen points out that in the verse in Sefer Shemos which refers to the wicked child, it says that the Jews bow down to Hashem. Rashi elaborates that they were giving thanks that they were having children. Questions Rav Tzadok, “Who gives thanks for having a wicked child?” Therefore, he concludes from this, a Biblical proof, that even for a wicked child one should be grateful for being entrusted with the duty of turning around this child and putting him on to the ways of Torah.
In this light, it is no coincidence that the seder night was when Yitzchak gave the blessings both to Yaakov and to Eisav, thus demonstrating his love for Eisav too! Indeed, one who showers love on a wayward child has much power in the arena of prayer. This person is able to say to Hashem, “Just as I love my child unconditionally, please love your children unconditionally as well.” It is for this reason that Yitzchak will be able to intercede and successfully petition Hashem for our people’s welfare in the future, while Avraham and Yaakov will not succeed.
The D’var Aharon of blessed memory (may Hashem avenge his blood shed at the hands of the hated Nazis) states that the lesson of the “sh’eino yodei’a lishol” is that we shouldn’t think chinuch, education, begins at the time when the child is able to ask. Rather, we’re taught to begin instructing and inculcating our children well before the questions start emerging. When a family presented a young child to a Rebbe and asked when they should start teaching him, the Rebbe replied, “The best years, you’ve already missed.”
The message of the Tam, the simple son, is that, to be successful, lesson plans do not always have to be deep, profound, novel, and complex. Rather, you can achieve much with people by clearly stating basic tenets and fundamentals of Jewish belief.
The wise son is praised for his acquisition of wisdom. Indeed, it is about him that we refer when we say, “Blessed is Hashem that He gave the Torah to His Nation Yisrael.” After all, Hashem told Moshe that the reason we merited the Exodus from Egypt is that we would accept the Torah at Har Sinai. There is an incredible gematria pointing to this fact. Yetzias Mitzraim, equals 891. This number is the exact equivalent to na’ase v’nishma, we will do and we will hear, which also equals 891.
The Steipler Gaon, of blessed memory, teaches that the supreme acquisition in life is the accomplishment of wisdom. As proof, he cites the fact that the Gemara expounds that the Hebrew word zakein, elder, means a Torah sage. This is because ZaKein is an abbreviation of zeh kaneh chachma, this one acquired wisdom. Continues the Steipler, ZaKein is a corruption of zeh kaneh, this one acquired. But, how do we know it refers to chachma? Maybe it refers to wealth, or maybe friends? He concludes, it must mean chachma because the only lasting acquisition in life is the acquisition of wisdom. Thus, the chacham has succeeded in zooming in on life’s most important pursuit.
An obvious question asked by the commentators is, “Why does the Haggadah repeat over and over echad chacham, echad rasha,” etc., repeating the word ‘one’ each time one of the sons is delineated. It could have just said, “The wise son, the evil son…,” etc. The simple solution is that the word echad sometimes means ‘whether this or that,’ conveying the important lesson that we should give equal attention regardless of whether the child is wise or wicked, etc. Reb Chaim Shmuelevitz delves into this more deeply and answers more profoundly. He explains that the repetition of the word ‘one’ indicates that we are not necessarily speaking about four different children! Sometimes all of these four attributes could be blended in the same child, manifesting themselves in different areas of his or her life. He bolsters this with the fact that the gematria of echad is thirteen which, when multiplied by four (sons), equals fifty-two, the numerical value of “ben,” namely a single child.
Finally, I’d like to propose that the quadruple mention of the term echad stresses the importance of emphasizing achdus, family unity, to different types of children, for we were redeemed from Egypt when we repented the sin of selling our brother Yosef as a slave. Thus, we should mightily proclaim to our progeny, “Hinei matov u’manaim, sheves achim gam yachad – How good and how sweet when brothers (and sisters) dwell together in unity.”
Thus, in a day and age when parents “outsmart” the educators by buying the live-ins a rubber stamp of their signatures and then have the live-in sign-off on their children’s homework sheets when reprimanded by the teachers, Pesach is the time to remind ourselves and recommit ourselves to spend more time with each and every one of our children.
In the zechus of this attempt, may we live long and healthy lives in order that we witness much Torah nachas from all of our descendants.
Transcribed and edited by Shelley Zeitlin.
