When talking about the four sons, the Haggadah states about the one who doesn't know how to ask: והגדת לבנך ביום ההוא לאמר בעבור זה עשה ה' לי בצאתי ממצרים.. And you shall tell your son on that day saying, “It is because of this, that the Lord did for me when I left Egypt.” (Shemot 13:8) If we look at this passage it doesn't seem to make sense. Why would you give him an answer if he isn't asking anything? He seems to not be interested, so why would you even bother? If I was in class and not interested in the subject, I wouldn't want someone to bother me and try to get me interested! The answer, I think, is that if you start the conversation it will lead to questions. Once people start asking questions and those questions are answered, everyone starts getting involved in the conversation. It becomes a debate as opposed to just telling a story. When we were younger if someone was reading a story to us, sometimes it got boring. But if the person reading the story encouraged us to ask questions, we got more involved and the story was way better. The whole format of the Seder is designed to get us to ask questions. Sometimes the answers to those questions lead to even more questions! That is how you get the whole family sitting around the Seder table involved.


haggadah Section: -- Four Children
Source: Original