Bo 5774

“And it will come to pass when your children say to you, ‘What is this service to you?’ You shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the L-rd, for He passed over the houses of the Children of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, and He saved our houses.’” (Shemot/Exodus 12:26-27)

The Passover seder service is designed to arouse the curiosity of the children. The youngest child asks Four Questions about the Passover symbols, foods and rituals; in the Passover Haggadah (text of the seder service and story of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt) there is a passage about Four Children and their questions. The passage, based on these verses from this week’s Torah portion, teaches that we must answer our children’s questions.

Writes Mrs. Rosally Saltsman in Parenting by the Book: “Children ask questions because they need to know the answers…We need to give legitimacy to their questions by showing them that what they care about is important to us.”

Observes Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald on njop.org: “The truth is that every thinking Jewish child will at one point say to his parents, teachers or friends: ‘Why do I need to be Jewish? Why do we need to keep kosher? Why do we have to observe Shabbat?’...Every thinking Jew has to face these questions: ‘Why am I a Jew, and what do these religious rituals mean to me?’”

Note Rabbi Yisroel and Rabbi Osher Anshel Jungreis in Torah for Your Table: “It is not unusual for men or women who never gave too much thought to their Judaism to undergo a total transformation once they become parents. They realize that if they are to convey something of lasting value, and if they are to tell ‘the story’ to their children, they must first and foremost possess that knowledge.”

As parents, we might find our children’s unrelenting questions annoying, time-consuming to hear and to answer, and challenging to our knowledge base and to our authority. Nevertheless, we must do our best to provide appropriate responses. Today there are more resources than ever to help us and our children find the answers we seek. 

http://rabbibuchwald.njop.org/2005/01/10/bo-5765-2005/