Have you ever wondered why it is that the רשע and the שאינו יודע לשאול have the same answer even though they don't ask questions that even remotely resemble each other? Now being as it may that you have a Haggadah right in front of you I am not going to write out the question and answers of all the banim rather I will just highlight what I am using by writing it down. What I am going to focus on is a specific part of the answer that both of the banim get בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה ה' לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרָיִם what this pasuk means is: because of this Hashem did this to me when I was leaving Egypt. The answer for the רשע is that the passuk says for me and not for you (the רשע) had you (the רשע) been in Egypt you would not have been taken out. And the answer for שאינו יודע לשאול is the pasuk is the answer. Essentially it is saying that the pasuk says וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר, בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה ה' לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרָיִם. And that the pasuk is teaching you to do exactly that and you explain to him that because of the פסח מצה ומרור Hashem took me (the parent) out of Egypt. But, what if I told you the “son who doesn't know how to ask” has the same answer as the רשע because he too is a רשע. According to the כלי יקר in שמות the שאינו יודע לשאול can be worse than the רשע. The כלי יקר explains that there are two types of שאינו יודע לשאול 's, one who doesn't know how to ask and one who if you properly translate the words שאינו - doesn’t יודע - know לשאול - to ask, this child has no דרך ארץ he wants to be so far removed from taking part in the סדר that he won't even disrespectfully ask any questions. This is also why he is called the שאינו יודע לשאול and not the שאינו יודע איך לשאול. This child is the most troublesome child at the table, worse than the Rasha. The כלי יקר also says that the reason that the רשע and the שאינו יודע לשאול have the same answer is that if this child is a רשע רע then he will understand that לי ולא לו would apply to him because had he been there he would not have participated in the עבודה and would have thus not been taken out of Egypt. And if this child didn't know how to ask then he would not even think לי ולא לו because he believes he would and/or actually would have participated in the עבודה and the idea of עָשָׂה ה' לִי meaning לי ולא לו would not even cross his mind.  

Furthermore, the ירושלמי when explaining the ארבע בנים, says that there are four sons the חכם the רשע the טיפש and the שאינו יודע לשאול. If you didn't know what was weird about that the תם is replaced with the טיפש why would the תם be called the simple one and not the שאינו יודע לשאול which everyone believes is the simplest one at the table? The reason is because the ירושלמי doesn't believe that the שאינו יודע לשאול is the simplest person at the table. After all, he isn’t the farthest removed from the table in the sense that he isn't participating rather than being the farthest removed from the table in the sense that he is the least intelligent. He has seperated himself the very most. 


haggadah Section: -- Four Children