At Passover each year, we read the story of our ancestors’ pursuit of liberation from

oppression. When confronting this history, how do we answer our children when

they ask us how to pursue justice in our time?

What does the activist child ask?

“The Torah tells me, ‘Justice, justice you shall pursue,’ but how can I pursue justice?”

Empower her always to seek pathways to advocate for the vulnerable. As Proverbs

teaches, “Speak up for the mute, for the rights of the unfortunate. Speak up, judge

righteously, champion the poor and the needy.”

What does the skeptical child ask?

“How can I solve problems of such enormity?”

Encourage him by explaining that he need not solve the problems, he must only do

what he is capable of doing. As we read in Pirkei Avot—The Ethics of Our Ancestors,

“It is not your responsibility to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist

from it.”

What does the indifferent child say?

“It’s not my responsibility.”

Persuade her that responsibility cannot be shirked. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua

Heschel writes, “The opposite of good is not evil; the opposite of good is

indifference. In a free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty, but all

are responsible.”

And the uninformed child who does not know how to ask ...

Prompt him to see himself as an inheritor of our people’s legacy. As it says in

Deuteronomy, “You must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land

of Egypt.”


haggadah Section: -- Four Children
Source: AJWS Haggadah