08 Apr BEING AN EDUCATOR AT THE SEDER

Baruch Hamakom, Baruch
Hu. Baruch she’nosan
Torah l’amo Yisroel,
Baruch Hu. K’neged arba
bonim dibra Torah. Echad
chochom, 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 Yisroel, 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.
Paroh 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, Paroh

banned the use of mikvaos 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 desencdents. 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
Hakohein points out that in the verse in Sefer
Shmos 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 Yisroel.” 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 (calculation using the
numeric values of Hebrew letters) pointing
to this fact. Yetzias Mitzraim, Exodus from
Egypt, 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 Gemora expounds
that the Hebrew word zakein, elder, means
a Torah sage. This is because ZaKein is
an abbreviation of zeh kaneh chochmah,
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 chochmah? Maybe
it refers to wealth, or maybe friends? He
concludes, it must mean chochmah because
the only lasting acquisition in life is the
acquisition of wisdom. Thus, the chochom
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 chachom, 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.