Click here to view other books by Translated, adapted, and annotated by Jonathan Taub and Yisroel Shaw

Other books on this topic:

The Malbim Esther
Translated and annotated by Jonathan Taub

Guidelines to Pesach
Rabbi Elozor Barclay and Rabbi Yitzchok Jaeger

The Haggadah Connection
Rabbi Reuven Bulka

Haggadah Gems
Rabbi Moshe Shlomo Emanuel

The Baranovich Haggadah
Rabbi Shalom Meir Wallach

People who bought this book also bought:

The Malbim Esther
Translated and annotated by Jonathan Taub

Haggadah Gems
Rabbi Moshe Shlomo Emanuel

One Minute Messages
Rabbi Moshe Goldberger

Rambam & Redemption
Benzion Buchman

Gemara Wisdom
Haim Perlmutter

Book Excerpt from The Malbim Haggadah

The Malbim Haggadah Translated, adapted, and annotated by Jonathan Taub and Yisroel Shaw Make your Pesach/Passover seder meaningful with this brilliant, classic analysis of the Haggadah text. Elucidates its meaning, structure, and sequence in an enlightening and engaging manner. Buy The Malbim Haggadah at a special online price at www.targum.com

The Wise Son – What Does He Say?

THE QUESTIONS:

1. And you should even instruct him regarding the laws of the Pesach. “After the Pesach offering, no dessert is to be eaten!”

   This is the answer which the Haggadah instructs us to give to the wise son. However, the Torah explicitly specifies, at length, a different response to the wise son:

   And you shall say to your son, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but God brought us forth from Egypt with a mighty hand. God brought signs and wonders, great and terrifying, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. And He brought us forth from there, in order to bring us and to give us the land which He swore to our fathers. God commanded us to keep all of these statutes, to fear Hashem our God, for our good all the days, so that He will keep us alive like today. It will be righteousness for us if we observe to do all of this law before Hashem our God, as He commanded us” (Devarim 6:21-25).

2. And you should even instruct him regarding....

   What purpose does the word “even” serve? It would have sufficed to say, “And you should instruct him regarding...” and not, “And you should even instruct him regarding...”.

3. And you should even instruct him regarding the laws of the Pesach....

   Why do we say kehilchos hapesach, literally, “...instruct him regarding like the laws of the Pesach”?

4. ...instruct him regarding the laws of the Pesach: “After the Pesach offering, no dessert is to be eaten!”

   Why is “laws” in plural, when the response concludes with only one law? The Haggadah should have said, “...instruct him regarding a law of Pesach...”.

5. “After the Pesach offering, no dessert is to be eaten!”

   Why was this law, of all the laws of Pesach, chosen as the response to the child’s question? Furthermore, how does this law answer the question, What are the testimonies, the statutes, and the social ordinances which Hashem our God has commanded you?

*

The wise son – what does he say? Perhaps a more accurate translation of ma hu omer would be, The wise son – what does it [the verse in the Torah] say [about him], and not, what does he say.

This understanding of ma hu omer makes sense, because the previous sentence stated, The Torah spoke about four sons; now the Haggadah logically asks what the Torah said about those four sons.

The wise son – what does the Torah say about him? The Haggadah answers with the verses of the Torah which discuss the wise son. Although the Haggadah cites only the son’s question, What are the testimonies, the statutes, and the social ordinances which Hashem our God has commanded you? (Devarim 6:20), it is clear from these verses that the Torah is talking about a wise and righteous son.

First, the Torah introduces this son’s question with the words, “When your son will ask you in time to come, saying...”. In contrast, when the Torah introduces the question of the wicked son, it says, “...when your children will say to you...”. The difference in diction is obvious; in one place the Torah says the child will ask you, and in the other it says the child will say to you. What does this difference mean?

When the child asks you, “What are these testimonies...”, he is questioning sincerely. He earnestly desires the knowledge he lacks and is making an honest attempt to obtain it. His mind is open and he is fully prepared to give ear to the answer, to listen, to understand, to accept and to fulfill all that we tell him. This is the righteous son.

When the child says to you, “What is this service to you?”, even though his words are in question form, he is not questioning, but making a statement. He is saying outright that these laws mean nothing to him. This is the wicked son.

Second, “When your son will ask you in time to come” implies that the son will ask in the future, because he himself did not experience the Exodus and did not witness the miracles God wrought. His motive for questioning is to fill the gaps in his knowledge concerning the events in history which he was not present to behold. “In time to come” tells us that he is not asking out of malice or resentment.

This differs from the wording the Torah uses in regards to the wicked son’s question. There, the Torah does not say “in time to come”. This indicates that the son is asking even though he witnessed the departure from Egypt and is not lacking knowledge of it; rather, he is questioning out of his spirit of rebelliousness.

Third, the son, in his question, distinguishes between three types of commandments:

What are the testimonies. These are the commandments which testify to the miracles and wonders that God performed for us.

and the statutes. These are the commandments whose reasons are beyond human comprehension.

and the social ordinances. These are the commandments which regulate the relationships between man and his fellow (such as providing charity and respecting the property of others), for which our common sense would oblige us even without the Torah’s command.

This distinction between the various types of commandments displays a keen awareness of the Torah, expresses an ardent desire to understand its many facets, and is additional evidence that the enquirer is indeed wise. This is in stark contrast to the wicked son’s question. The wicked son includes all of the commandments in one general term – “service”, making no differentiation between the varied forms of service. This shows a feeling of apathy at best, and derision at worst, for what the Torah has to offer.

Fourth, the son says, “...which Hashem our God has commanded...”. Not only does he include mention of the Almighty in his question, but he also says “our God”, thus including himself as one who faithfully trusts in and serves God. The wicked son, on the other hand, makes no mention of God in his question.

...which Hashem our God has commanded you. When the wise son says “commanded you”, and not “commanded us”, he does not intend to exclude himself from the commandments, as the Haggadah indeed deduces from the wicked son’s use of the same phrase – “to you, but not to him”. What is the difference?

We have already seen that the wise son’s question arises from his lack of knowledge, which itself is merely a consequence of not personally witnessing the Exodus. Just as he did not experience the Exodus, he was also not physically present for the Revelation at Sinai, when the entire nation heard God speak to them. Therefore, he asks, “What are the testimonies...which God has commanded you,” which God spoke unto you; I am certainly included in the commandments, but God did not speak directly to me as He did to you.

The wicked son, however, says, “What is this service to you”; even though he may have experienced the Revelation and heard God speak to him, he still says “to you” to stress his self-imposed exclusion from the community.

This difference between the “you” of the wise son and the “you” of the wicked son is evident in the two Hebrew forms of what seems to be the same pronoun. The wise son says eschem, which literally means “with you”. He is not implying that God’s words were directed to you and not to him; he is merely asking what God said when he spoke with you. He understands that God’s words are directed to every Jewish person without exception, but that God only actually spoke with those who lived at the time of the Revelation. The wicked son says lachem, which literally means “to you”. He believes that even though he may have heard God speak, God’s words were directed not to him, but to you.

The Haggadah began this section with a question, The wise son – what does the Torah say about him?, and proceeded to guide us to the section of the Torah which addresses the question of the wise son. Once it has informed us where in the Torah the wise son’s question is discussed, the Haggadah has no need to tell us what to answer him. The answer is already there, in the Torah, and we now know where to find it. It is quite obvious that we answer the wise son with the reply that the Torah teaches us to answer. Nevertheless, the Haggadah wishes to emphasize that we must answer the wise son by teaching him all of the laws of the Pesach offering, from the beginning of the service until the end.

And you should even instruct him. In addition to what the Torah commands you to answer him, you should even tell him...

...like the laws of the Pesach.... Just as you teach him all of the laws of the Pesach sacrifice – which is what he asked for – from the beginning of the service until the end, you should also teach him all of the laws which apply after the consumption of the Paschal lamb, such as “After the Pesach offering, no dessert is to be eaten!”

Buy The Malbim Haggadah at a special online price at www.targum.com

Comodo SSL Certificate