Pesach

Written by Rabbi Dr Michael Shire Tuesday, 04 April 2006

Pesach

Children are symbolic of God’s relationship with the children of Israel

Within humanity as a whole, the Classical tradition pictures the Jewish People in a special position as the ‘children of God’. From this statement it can be deduced that this love for children is enduring and eternal, a sign of God’s unconditional love (hesed). The idea of the child as an eminent value of the parent expresses the highest view of the child as a part of God’s crowning aspect of creation. Children are often seen to be the symbols of the people as a whole as their purity, righteousness, joy and holiness are highlighted.

The most prevalent use of children as exemplars in Jewish ritual is the Pesach Haggadah where the seder cannot be conducted without a child asking the initial questions about the purpose of the evening meal and ritual. It is also where the seder cannot be concluded without bargaining with a child for the return of the afikoman. The passage of the four children beautifully portrays all the elements of a Jewish theology of childhood incorporated in a pegagogic device designed by the 2nd century rabbi Hiyya to keep children stimulated at the seder. Hiya who not only had four children but advocated peer learning and teaching in order to ensure the Oral law would not be forgotten. (Ketubot 103b) The Torah speaks of four children who all seem to be asking about the deliverance from Egypt (Exodus 12:26-7, 13:8, 13:13-14, Deut 6:20-25). The Pesach Haggadah uses the questions or comments of these four children as a component of the Seder. This significant passage originating in the Midrash (Mechilta Bo 18) implies that each child should be answered according to his own question and in line with his own attitude. Each question is ascribed to a type of child; wise, wicked, simple/pious and the one who does not know how to ask at all. Each is therefore given a different response according the question that has been asked using the texts drawn from the Torah passages. The relation of all four allows us to see the intricacy of the passage and the purpose for which it was compiled. Michael Rosenak based on the Vilna Gaon sees the four types as two pairs of opposites. The ‘wise child’ is set opposite the ‘one does not know’ in their intellectual capacity. The simple/pure who behaves uprightly is set opposite the wicked one in a moral capacity. The ‘wise child’ represents the combination of learned and good, the ‘wicked child’, the learned but not good, the ‘simple/pure’, not learned but good and ‘the one who does not know’ represents the category of not learned and not good. These sets of categorizations therefore encompass all of the combinations of a learning and moral religious identity. Here in the Haggadah, the major Jewish festival of national and personal liberation, four types of children are used to symbolize how Israel struggles with its mission from God.
Rabbi Dr Michael Shire