Rationales of the Passover

In theory we should engage
with four sons, whom I list below,
including, at the top, the sage,
at bottom one who doesn’t know
how questions should be asked, and in
the middle the outsider who
considers rituals a sin,
and one who’s simple, but heart true.

We teach Passover laws to those
who’re wise … and welcome to our table
the wicked sons who are our foes,
but do not make our lives unstable.
Though sons who’re simple fail in schools
to learn the facts of Jewish life,
we must not let them think they’re fools,
but tell them of God’s strength. Our wife
is suited best to teach our son
who does not yet know how to ask,
while we provide for him some fun,
with afikoman-search his task.

The spice of life, variety,
is what on Passover we choose
to celebrate; society
does not allow us to refuse
a welcome to a left-outs-on,
so even those who have the label
of wicked we refuse to shun,
with wine and matzoh on our table,
and having poured non-PC wrath
on fatal foes, pour for Elijah
a glass on wine-stained tablecloth
for this great guest, noblesse obliger,
to drink, performing what we’re told
by Malachi he’ll do: join Jews
to one another, young and old,
divided no more by vile views.

Elijah’s the antidote of awesome
destruction on a doom-date day
of Jews, when for the seder’s foursome
he’ll Malachi’s last words unsay,

for only three sons contribute
to Israel’s redemption every year,
opposing wicked sons who contribute
only confusion. This I fear

prevents today’s solution
like that which Edward Countryman
said programmed the US Revolution,
cooperation of its sundry men,

as does the wicked son, identifiable
as oto haish, vaguely degrading Jesus,
if the Yerushalmi version is reliable,
though it all interfaithful folk displeases,
oto haish perhaps not ever been used
before medieval texts, where he’s abused,
and shamefully by Jews abused,
anonymously accused.

This contrasts with how we are told
that someone who is labeled “you”
should teach the fourth son, young or old,
the reason all Jews should review
the exodus’s tale is that it’s the tail
that wags the dog—the reason why
we must remember each detail,
and only by remembering rely
not on the answers of our question but
on willingness to ask them — as excited
about the present as the past, the strange word ut
denoting “you,” when Israel is united.

Jer. 31:28-31 states:

כח  בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם–לֹא-יֹאמְרוּ עוֹד, אָבוֹת אָכְלוּ בֹסֶר; וְשִׁנֵּי בָנִים, תִּקְהֶינָה. 28 In those days they shall say no more: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

כט  כִּי אִם-אִישׁ בַּעֲוֺנוֹ, יָמוּת:  כָּל-הָאָדָם הָאֹכֵל הַבֹּסֶר, תִּקְהֶינָה שִׁנָּיו.  {ס} 29 But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man that eateth the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. {S}

ל  הִנֵּה יָמִים בָּאִים, נְאֻם-יְהוָה; וְכָרַתִּי, אֶת-בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאֶת-בֵּית יְהוּדָה–בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה. 30 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah;

לא  לֹא כַבְּרִית, אֲשֶׁר כָּרַתִּי אֶת-אֲבוֹתָם, בְּיוֹם הֶחֱזִיקִי בְיָדָם, לְהוֹצִיאָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם:  אֲשֶׁר-הֵמָּה הֵפֵרוּ אֶת-בְּרִיתִי, וְאָנֹכִי בָּעַלְתִּי בָם–נְאֻם-יְהוָה. 31 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was a lord over them, saith the LORD.

The mishnah in Yerushalmi responds to the question of the wicked son regarding the avodah, a word which can denote both slavery and the sacrificial Paschal offering of the Passover, by responding to his question with the words im hayaha sham oto haish lo haya nigal, “If that man had been there he would not have been redeemed,” instead of the conventional text, im hu hayah sham lo hayah nigal, “if he had been there he would not have been saved.’ The use of the mishnah in the Yerushalmi of the words oto haish to identity the wicked son, might imply that they identity this wicked son as Jesus, who is given this name in it almost a thousand years before this name is used in medieval Jewish texts that involve Jesus.

This is the question of the fourth son in the haggadah:

וְשֶׁאֵינוֹ יוֹדֵעַ לִשְׁאוֹל – אַתְּ פְּתַח לוֹ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר, בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה יְיָ לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרָיִם.

And the one who does not know how to ask, ut, you, must open [the story] for him, as it is said: “And you shall tell your child on that day, it was because of this the LORD acted for me, when I came out of Egypt.”

The answer given to the fourth son corresponds to the text in Exod. 10:1-2:

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה בֹּ֖א אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֑ה כִּֽי־אֲנִ֞י הִכְבַּ֤דְתִּי אֶת־לִבּוֹ֙ וְאֶת־לֵ֣ב עֲבָדָ֔יו לְמַ֗עַן שִׁתִ֛י אֹתֹתַ֥י אֵ֖לֶּה בְּקִרְבּֽוֹ׃

Then GOD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among them,

וּלְמַ֡עַן תְּסַפֵּר֩ בְּאׇזְנֵ֨י בִנְךָ֜ וּבֶן־בִּנְךָ֗ אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁ֤ר הִתְעַלַּ֙לְתִּי֙ בְּמִצְרַ֔יִם וְאֶת־אֹתֹתַ֖י אֲשֶׁר־שַׂ֣מְתִּי בָ֑ם וִֽידַעְתֶּ֖ם כִּי־אֲנִ֥י יְהֹוָֽה׃

and that you may recount in the hearing of your child and of your child’s child how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I displayed My signs among them—in order that you may know that I am God.”

Verse 10:2 implies that the rationale of God’s instruction to Moses to instruct Pharaoh about the disaster that would befall him if he did not respond to the warning I give him with my plagues is not in order to warn Pharaoh about the disaster that would befall him if he did not obey Moses’s demands, but to instruct the Israelites about this story.  This is essentially why the Haggadah states that the explanation for the Passover rituals that should be given to the son who asks no questions, is the language in Exod. 10:2, “And you shall tell your child on that day, it was because of this the LORD acted for me, when I came out of Egypt.”

The rationale for the warning God instructs Moses to give Pharaoh is the tale of the exodus, a warning that not only should have wagged the tail of the Egyptian dog that did not bark with awareness, but in the future should during the seder wag the child that asks no questions with firm, pedagogical and tradition-binding awareness.