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By Rabbi Tuvia Bolton, Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim, Kfar Chabad, Israel

In the Passover Seder we read aloud a small pamphlet called the Hagadda.

It begins by describing four sons. The first is wise and he is followed by one wicked, one simple and one silent. Each has a different question and each receives a different response.

But let’s discuss the first; the wise son.

His question is: “What are all these laws, commandments and statutes that G-d commanded YOU?”

And the answer is; “Like the laws of the Pesach; don’t eat after the Afikomen.” (a piece of Matza set aside at the beginning of the Seder for the end).

This doesn’t seem to make sense.

How can a wise son not know what the laws of the Passover night are? And why does he say, “Commanded ‘YOU’? Why doesn’t he say Commanded ‘US’? After all, the laws of the Pesach Seder are for all Jews.

And the answer “Don’t eat after the Afikomen” is even stranger: it doesn’t seem to be an answer at all!

To answer this, here is a Passover story I heard years ago from a very dear friend of mine Azriel Wasserman ob’m.

In New York City there is (or was) a program called ‘released hour’ once a week (Wednesdays) that any child who wants to, can get released from public school one hour early and hear a class about his religion from a priest or a Rabbi etc.

This friend of mine was a very gifted and devoted teacher and he was one of the volunteers that gave such classes. He loved teaching and his once-a-week pupils loved him.

The Wednesday before Passover he met with his class and he made a ‘practice’ Seder for them; Kool-Aid and crackers in the place of wine and Matzot etc. and the kids, all from totally non-observant homes, really enjoyed it.

The next time he met with his class was a week later in the ‘intermediate days’ of the holiday after the Seder night (Passover is seven days long, but only the first and last days are holidays), and he noticed that two of the pupils, two sisters; one 9 and one ten, kept falling asleep in class.

He asked them several times if they felt O.K. and after answering each time that it was nothing, they finally hinted that they wanted to speak with him privately after the class.

“Please don’t tell anyone what we are telling you now” the older sister begged after all the other children left, “We have to tell you, though. Do you promise that you won’t tell?”

While she was speaking, her younger sister was watching her but when she paused both of them, were looking up at him with wide almost pleading eyes.

He stared at them for a few seconds and he nodded and said, “I promise”.

The girls looked at each other one more time and the older one began the story, her little sister alternately looking at her and then at the teacher.

“Well…you remember that last week you made for us a practice Seder Pesach, right?

“Well, if you remember, my sister asked you why are we doing all this and eating all these different things.

“And you said because that is what G-d wants. And also, to remind us how G-d took us out of Egypt… Right?”

He was nodding his head in agreement.

“Well, that day we went home and told our mom what you said, and that we want to make a Seder the night of Passover just like you showed us and our mom sort of liked the idea.

“But our dad didn’t. Our dad is not Jewish, so when we asked him he got really mad and said no. Then, when I asked him why, he got even madder and said that if we even talk about it again, he would really give us a spanking.

“Then he went over to mommy and started really yelling ‘cause he thought that she told us to ask, and he said other really angry things and we got real scared.

“But afterwards my sister and me talked alone, and we decided that if G-d said to do it, we are going to do it. So, we figured out a plan. We took money from our piggy bank and the next day, on our way back home from school we went to the store.

“We bought two bottles of grape juice one day, and the next day we bought a box of matzas and the next day we took some lettuce from the refrigerator. And everything we hid in the basement.

“Then on the night of Passover instead of going to sleep we just pretended to be asleep.

“After mom and dad were really asleep and it was already like one in the morning, we got out of bed, and lit a flashlight, and we snuck down the stairs into the basement. We were really scared because the stairs are creeky, and we were afraid that dad would wake up.

“And in the basement, it’s really dark and scary, we even saw a rat down there once!

“But we went down stairs and we took out the matza and the grape juice and everything.

“Then we lit two candles, and turned off the flashlight … and then we made ….. a secret Passover Seder!

“We did just like you said. We ate the matza and drank the grape juice, everything. And then we snuck back up and went to sleep.

“And nobody knows.

“Then, you know what we did the next night?

“We did the same thing over again!!

“But the next night we weren’t so scared, and we even laughed once because my sister made funny faces”. They looked at each other and smiled a little.

“That was yesterday. That’s why we’re so tired today” she continued. “But you won’t tell anyone will you? If dad finds out he’ll break our bones!” They looked at each other and then back at him.

He promised once again, they said good-bye and after they left, he closed the door, sat down in the teacher’s chair and cried.

“I don’t know if I have the courage to do the same thing that they did.” He told me, “they really put me in my place.”

This answers our question about the wise son.

The Lubavitch Rebbe explains that the question of wise son is a very deep and difficult one.

This son is actually so wise and perceptive that he feels that the holiness of the Passover Seder is similar to that first Pesach over 3,300 years ago when Almighty G-d Himself appeared and redeemed His People.

Therefore he asks:

“Why all these physical commandments for YOU this night? Why are you doing all these details? After all, G-d is ONE!

Therefore he doesn’t say ‘US’ but rather ‘YOU’.

In other words: “I, for sure, am not doing anything, I already feel the G-dly revelation!

But YOU…… even if YOU don’t feel it; certainly you believe it! So, why are you doing all these commandments and working so hard for something you already have: G-d REVEALED!!

And we answer him; the lesson we can learn from our story. Faith and details are essential. Just as the little girls defied all fear in order to do exactly what G-d wants …. So to today.

“Nothing comes for free. It’s true that G-d Himself took us all out of Egypt and tonight is specially blessed.

“But do you know how the Jews merited to such a revelation then and for all generations afterward?

“First, they had to take the god of Egypt; a sheep. Then it had to be sacrificed and eaten exactly like G-d wants down to the last, seemingly insignificant detail which was; no eating after the Afikomen (back then it was the Pesach goat or sheep).

And without following all these details there would have been no revelation and we wouldn’t have left Egypt!”

But there is more! On the Seder night we are not just celebrating the past; we are preparing a new future! Just as the Jews left Egypt via details, so too our details will bring Moshiach. And with him will be even BIGGER miracles and blessings.

Another way of saying it is: on Pesach we are not just celebrating what we RECEIVED (and what we are receiving). We are celebrating the fact that we could GIVE something to G-d! That G-d made us active PARTNERS with HIM!!

That is what we celebrate on Passover, not just that HaShem saved and helped us, but even more, that we began to serve Him.

This was the main goal of Moshe, as he repeated over and over to Pharaoh “Let my people go that they serve me.”

And this will be the main goal of the Moshiach who will rebuild the Holy Temple and bring all the Jews to the highest level of service possible.

An example of this is the Lubavitch Rebbe whose entire life’s work is only to bring all the Jewish people to act, speak, and think Jewish.

And eventually the entire world, billions of non-Jews as well, will realize how much G-d loves them and will fulfill what it says in the end of the Alenu prayer

“The entire world will recognize and know that G-d is the king.”

And, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe said repeatedly; this should happen at any moment. We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish service, hopes, prayers and suffering. It all depends on us!

One more good deed, word or even thought, can bring a Happy and Kosher Pesech…….

With Moshiach NOW!

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