The Four Children

Today’s episode is a Shabbat Replay from our Saturday morning service on April 6th. Rabbi Steven led a discussion about the Four Children of the Passover seder. The discussion has been edited down for brevity and clarity — thank you to everyone who lent their voices, whether or not the microphone picked up what you had to say!

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Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

Transcript

Transcript

We start in this moment that should really be a peak experience for the Israelites. We've been given all these instructions on how to build the Mishkan, we end the book of Exodus with the construction of Mishkan, and God's presence filling it. And then we begin the Book of Leviticus with instructions on what to do with a space that has been created, how to offer sacrifices, and what kinds of sacrifices could be offered as a way of bringing the community together, and drawing close to the Divine Presence. And so then in this triumphal moment, at the beginning of our Parsha, at the beginning of our Torah portion of this week, we have Aaron and his sons offering these first sacrifices, and we're told that they go about this very elaborate and very complicated ritual, they put the sacrifice down and a divine fire comes out and consumes the sacrifice, which I imagine must have been a very kind of deeply satisfying moment. It's like the lighting of the Olympic torch in some ways, right? Like there's like this like, it's like it's happening, it's like finally happening. And in the midst of, of what truly should have been a moment of celebration and tragedy, tragedy strikes, right? Aaron suns in the dive, and a V whom they come with something that wasn't asked of them. We were told it's a it's an ancient arrives a strange or alien fire, and they bring it into the Mishkan. And instead of their sacrifice being consumed by this divine fire, they themselves are consumed by it and they die.

So the rabbi's have a debate about why like what like what's up with these two? Like, what, like, what was the mistake they made?

And there's some rabbis who say, well, they just didn't know what they're doing. Like they weren't they weren't listening, or they were, they were kind of lost in the majesty of the moment. They didn't pay attention to the exact ritual. They're too excited. They were too eager. They weren't careful enough. There was a maybe even a level of ignorance or either willful or not willful, either the the excitement got to them, or maybe they just weren't listening when they should have been listening. But that's why that was the mistake they made.

And there's other rabbis were like, no, no, they knew exactly what they're doing. And they just purposely didn't do it the correct way. They did their own way. They rebelled, they pushed against the structure that I mean, the structure only been given to them for like, a day, and they're already pushing against it. And this was actually divine retribution, for not following the directions that they've been given.

And then the wake of the death of these two individuals. Moses turns their father Aaron, and says,

verse three here,

who assured the bear Adonai, lay more beak, Rene, aka Daesh, the Alpin a CO. UK evade, but you don't mind around. And so Moses says, This is what God meant, when God said, through those who are near to me, I show myself holy

thinking glory before all the people.

And then God, Aaron was silent. Following that, right. I don't know about you. But like when I read these verses, like I don't think that's necessarily my first insight. I feel like my first instinct, when sitting down with somebody who just experienced tragedy is not to be like this is how God shows God's glory. Right to all of you, I quoting kind of this like, like biblical Maxim almost right? Don't you know, right? This is actually, this is how this is how you should feel comforted in some way, right? This is how God shows God's self to the people.

Moses reaches into his wisdom, and tries to pull from his deep knowledge, but actually falls flat in providing comfort for Aaron and Aaron ends up falling silent. And so I know if you've been following the thread that I've been weaving here, but we have kind of two sons, one who might have been a bit ignorant or innocent or simple. In their approach to offering sacrifices, we maybe have another son who was rebellious pushing against the structures that were given to him. We have somebody who, in a moment of tragedy draws from his deep wisdom to offer some comfort. And then we have the individual who's silent. If this sound familiar to anybody, right, are you? Are you are you picking up what I'm putting down here? Great. Okay.

I'm going to, I'm going to write in the in the Passover Seder in the Haggadah, and the book that we use to guide our meal, we have four children that are presented to us we have the wise child, we have the rebellious child, we have the innocent or simple or ignorant child, and then we have the one who doesn't even know how to ask. And so I want us to actually take a look. We're gonna look at some text together today. And I want you to take a look at this text and then we're going to use it as a way of opening up discussion with each other on how we're going to approach our Seder this year. So if I can have folks with me just grab

Okay, so as as these texts are being passed out, we're going to

on the on the first side where it says the four children at the top

so don't don't look at the other side yet no spoilers

so we're on the side with the four children I will read this text just because I have I have the microphone so so people can hear

so I got it says connected are of a name, Deborah Torah

that HYDRA Chava had time, the hatchet no your daily show, the Torah speaks about four children, one who we call wise, one who's deemed rebellious, one who's deemed innocent, and one who doesn't even know how to ask. And so then the Haggadah has us go through each child and ask well what does right what does the wise one say? And the wise one says, What are these testimonies and statutes and laws that God commanded you? And you'll explain in detail the Seder to them such as we may not enjoying afikomen, aka the deserts after eating the Passover sacrifice, right? So why is child pulls from actually the wise child here is actually quoting a verse of Torah, and then is getting a piece of mission a piece of rabbinic text answer back to them. And the rest Shama, who will mer was the rebellious one say, what is this worship mean to you? To you and not to me, and since they exclude themselves from our community, you will blunt their teeth kind of like you'll like stick it to them by saying, It is for this that God brought me out of Egypt for me and not for you, if they had been there, they may not have been saved.

And then the simple one, the Tom, the innocent one, what do they say? What is this pretty? It's a question right? And you will say to them with a mighty hand, God brought us out of Egypt out of the house of bondage. He know your daily oil at Pathak low, and for the one who doesn't know how to ask you open their curiosity by telling our story, as it says in the Torah, you will speak to your child of that day saying it is for this, that God brought me out of Egypt. So if you notice that if you notice a pattern here, right? The three children who begin this section of the Haggadah are actually setting us up in a way, right? They're each responding in some way to pique our curiosity to get to ask questions about what we're doing in that moment, which to be honest, is really weird, right? I don't know, if you, I'm assuming you all have dinner regularly, right? Our Seder is it is not like a normal dinner, right? And the whole point of the Seder in some ways, is to get us to be like the children and ask questions like, why are we doing this? What's the meaning of this? Like, why are you doing this technicality? Like why are we doing this thing that I don't enjoy right now? Or that doesn't feel right? Or what even is this? Because in a way, we're supposed to be responding to

the child who doesn't know how to ask or doesn't know where to start? Right, these questions kind of prepare us to then tell the story of Passover, which is, the whole point of the Seder itself is to tell the story, to reenact the story to relive the story.

And so we're actually what I don't want us to do. And this is I'm going back to what Rabbi Lizzi challenged us to do last week, which is we take our tradition, and we have to make it new every year in a way because it should be responding to the moment that we're in, it should be responding to us. And so I don't want us to get stuck on the questions that the children have asked for 1400 years, right? A lot, a lot, many years, right? These children should be alive and should be active, and should be asking us wise, or rebellious or innocent questions. So that we can think about, well, how are we going to be telling the Passover story this year, for those of us who don't even know where to start? So we're going to use their children as a framework for some discussion. If you want to flip your page over.

We have the wise child, we have the rebellious child, we have the innocent child, and I just proposed some potential questions that those children might ask us this year, given everything that's happening in the world, giving our modern context giving our distance from the historical moment of the Exodus. But you can also fill in your own questions. But essentially the idea of like, what are the technicalities of the Seder that we can we can shape or reuse in a way to tell a story in a different way? Or what's even the reason we're doing this folks? Like why are you wasting your time doing this meal if it doesn't actually mean anything to you? So how do we make it meaningful? Right? How do we actually blunt the blunt that kind of sharpness, the rebellious child who's asking good questions, and then the innocent child of like, What even is this what you should be feeling? Why are we doing this? Like those are? Those are actually big questions that we should be asking ourselves. So I would love for you to turn to a router or even a group. Maybe pick a child or two, you can use the questions are on the page. You can also read when the questions be like, Oh, God, no, I'm not talking to that right now. But like maybe take that with you later to ask yourself and have a discussion about well, how do we respond to this moment? What are you going to do differently this year, to make the Seder new to make the story of telling the Exodus actually be a live reenactment in real time of what it means to journey from slavery to freedom. And we'll come back together maybe share some of our thoughts. Mm.

sound good? Awesome. Okay, I'm gonna leave it to it.

Okay, I would love to hear from a person or two, just some thoughts that came up for you who feels who feels like they hit on something inspired or, or interesting or controversial or I don't know something that that

that moved you sparked joy in the, the words of Marie Kondo?

It means no, it means literally the term in Japanese means like something that like moved you that elicited a strong emotion, right? Of which like, enjoy could be one of them. But like, yeah, what is something that like moved you that cause that, that?

That shiver of energy, and excitement?

And you're all talking. So I know, you're talking about something.

Something that was said here was like, Oh, God, I've been putting off thinking about this. And that's something that I have heard from many people is this feeling of like, I do not know how Seder is gonna go this year, because like, intergenerationally, that like people, you know, intergenerationally, maybe older folks at the table have different opinions on some of the themes and how they apply in the world and younger folks at the table. Or right that like there's just the presence of difference at the table about things that are very evocative and promote reactions within us? And how on earth like Seder is hard on any year, maybe? How do we hold the presence of people's different opinions on how the story applies? What the symbolic meaning of it is? How do we hold that? Absolutely. Right. Absolutely. Um, I know that one of our amazing Mishkan i It's Elisa Becker wrote an article about about how to maybe navigate some of these differences at the table I think I think we have in our Passover page, or we're going to put our page so no, Tim

right, because

yeah, no, thank you. None of it, you, appreciate you lifting up the theme that I pass over is in so many, many ways, taking the particularity of our story, and drawing out universal themes, right. That are have always been our tradition of human dignity and worth and

if you want a good retelling of the Passover story that does that you can watch the greatest movie of all time the prince of Egypt

don't think you've ever told us about it before? I don't I don't think I've ever mentioned this movie ever in the space or how much I love it. But one thing I do love about this very excellent DreamWorks feature film

is that is that they they humanize all sides, right? Like like Pharaoh is actually given like a like a motive and like, and like a bit of hubris and like, you know, faults faults that we can actually relate to. Right, Who among us has not right? felt the pressure of leadership and maybe made decisions that we don't, we aren't proud of or have been stuck between a rock and a hard place or a Sea of Reeds in Iraq? I guess.

Really? Well what I love is you're pointing to I think a hint that's in the text. And we'll we'll wrap up here so we can continue the conversation over lunch. But it's, it's almost like you you set this up for me in such a beautiful way. But it's hinted the text right? The haggadah begins with the Torah speaks about four children. But the Torah doesn't actually speak about four children. And if we look at the verse that were given about telling children, about our about what happened for us, is to speak to your child on that day. What's one kid? It's one kid, right? And so we actually were given that hint that we're not actually looking at for kind of a centralized personalities, we're looking at one child, each of us really, who embodies these different voices, right, the part of us that is well versed in or deeply immersed in or deeply connected to the traditions that we've been given either through our inheritance or through our choice. We are also, you know, holding a voice in us that is probably asking you right now, given everything is happening around us, like, what's the point of this? And like, is this just performative? And is this just empty is just empty ritual. We also have that simple or innocent voice that's asking kind of maybe some more existential questions are really kind of the questions of like, how should I be feeling right now? Like, I mean, and then there's probably the part of us that doesn't even know where to begin? Who's been putting off right planning the Seder for a little while, because like, where do we even begin this year? These are all these are all voices. These are all personalities inside each of us and inside each of the people sitting at our table. And so the question that I want us to carry out of the space is how do we renew and recreate ritual?

that takes each of those voices to tell the story in a new way that actually allows us to live out the commandment, which is not to simply tell the story but tell the story as if we experienced it ourselves. And it's not necessarily a game of projecting ourselves to the past or projecting the past into the present, but recognizing how in the present we are still walking this particular journey from slavery to freedom from a narrow place to a place of expansiveness. And so as you begin to plan your saders or plan on attending a Seder or thinking about your Passover, I hope that you feel a renewed sense of ownership over recreating and revisiting these traditions to tell a story a new Shabbat Shalom, folks