The Wicked Son's Question: Good Tidings for the Generations

1“And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What is this service to you?’”¹ The Mechilta says: “At that moment Israel received good tidings, that they would yet see children and grandchildren, as it says, ‘The people bowed and prostrated themselves.’”² This is puzzling. Could the Jews of that generation ever have imagined that they would not be granted children? Why, then, did they need special tidings about it? The holy sefarim, the Avodas Yisrael and the Bnei Yissaschar, ask another question.³ But this verse speaks of the wicked son's question, as the author of the Haggadah wrote.⁴ Why, then, does it open with “And it shall be,” vehayah, a word that expresses joy?⁵ What joy is there in tidings that they will have a wicked son, Heaven forbid? And why was this considered good tidings for Israel?

2We may say that the joy spoken of here is our joy when our children see the service of the Seder night and all the customs we keep on it, and want to understand the reasons for them. They ask because they want to continue in the way of their fathers. That is why the verse says that the question will come from “your children,” rather than simply “And it shall be, when they say to you”: it hints that the children want to continue in their fathers' ways. As for calling this son “wicked,” the word is not meant literally. It is meant in the sense the holy sefarim explain: one who challenges every mitzvah, Heaven forbid, asking why it must be done, counts as a kind of wicked person. So this was indeed good tidings for Israel. Even the children who are “wicked” in this sense would inquire and want to continue the traditions of their fathers, and they would hand this strength down to their own children after them, to the end of all generations.

3To these questions of our children we answer: “And you shall say, ‘It is a Pesach offering to Hashem, Who passed over the houses of Bnei Yisrael in Egypt … and saved our houses.’”⁶ The point of the answer is this. Just as in Egypt Hashem passed over, skipped over and had compassion on the houses of Israel⁷ because they were clearly distinct from the houses of the Egyptians, so we must keep ourselves apart from the ways and customs of the nations of the world. That is why we hold fast to the customs of Israel.

4My holy father and teacher, zt"l, said something similar on the verse “And I will set a redemption between My people and your people; tomorrow this sign shall be.”⁸ In Egypt the redemption came in the merit of their not changing their language, their dress or their names from the ways and tradition of their fathers.⁹ That set the people of Israel apart from the Egyptians, and the verse hints at this with the words “a redemption between My people and your people.” So it will be in the future as well: in the merit of guarding their fathers' ways and tradition, Israel will be privileged to see the redemption to come. This is the meaning of “tomorrow this sign shall be,” in the sense of the saying in the Arizal's writings, quoted in the Shelah: “There is a ‘tomorrow’ that comes after a long time.”¹⁰ That “tomorrow” is the redemption to come. Those are his holy words.

5In the same way we can explain the rejoicing of a groom and bride. The Gemara tells that at the wedding feast of Mar, the son of Ravina, the Rabbis said to Rav Hamnuna Zuti, “Let the master sing for us.” He said to them, “Woe to us, for we shall die! Woe to us, for we shall die!” They said to him, “And what shall we answer after you?” He told them: “Where is the Torah and where is the mitzvah that will protect us?”¹¹ The holy sefarim, among them the Alshich and the Sifsei Tzaddik, the latter in the name of the Maharam Chagiz, explain why they said this at a wedding, of all times.¹² The underlying reason for marriage is that “a generation goes and a generation comes,”¹³ and so a person must marry and raise children. That is exactly why a wedding is the time to take stock of our souls and ask how we will reach the higher world, by reflecting on the purpose of marriage and on our duty in this world of ours. Reflecting on this leads a person to hand down to his children the way to continue the customs and tradition of the fathers from generation to generation, so that they in turn will hand it down to the generation after them.

6aChazal instituted that at a wedding celebration and at the sheva berachos, the festive meals of the week after the wedding, we say the blessing “shehasimchah bim'ono,” “that joy is in His dwelling.”¹⁴ Notice the wording: ma'on, “dwelling,” is also the name of one of the seven heavens.¹⁵ Why should joy dwell in this heaven, rather than another, at a Jewish wedding? We can explain this as follows. The same passage of the Gemara says that in the heaven called Ma'on are companies of ministering angels who sing praise at night and are silent by day out of respect for Israel; Rashi explains that this is because Israel praises Hashem by day. Ma'on, then, is clearly the place where Israel's prayers and praises of Hashem, blessed be He, are heard. At a wedding celebration we are privileged to reach the level at which the prayers of Israel are heard above, and that is why Chazal worded the blessings this way: “that joy is in His Ma'on.”

6bThe reason is this. When a new home is established in Israel, it makes a great impression in Heaven above, and great joy is stirred in the place where Israel's praises of Hashem, blessed be He, are heard. That home will continue the chain of the generations in the way of the fathers and the tradition, from generation to generation until the coming of the righteous Redeemer. For establishing a Jewish home that continues the chain of the generations is itself praise and honor to Hashem, and the joy we feel at it holds great honor for Heaven. That is why it is in this heaven, where Israel praises Hashem, that the joy is stirred.

7This lets us explain the Gemara's teaching that one who gladdens a groom and bride is as if he had rebuilt one of the ruins of Yerushalayim.¹⁶ What does gladdening a groom and bride have to do with rebuilding Yerushalayim? The answer is this. Raising a new generation that follows in the footsteps of the fathers, keeping itself distinct from the nations, is the power and merit through which we will be privileged to see our redemption and the deliverance of our souls. We saw this in my holy father's teaching on “tomorrow this sign shall be.” Raising such a generation lays the foundation for the generation that will greet Moshiach, one that will walk in the footsteps of the fathers, from generation to generation.

8This is especially so now, as we rejoice with people who put their lives at risk in a time of distress, in the days of the war,¹⁷ to continue in the tradition of their fathers. By their mesirus nefesh, their readiness to give their lives, they handed this strength down to their children after them, to the end of all generations. As Chazal said, anything for which they gave up their lives still endures in their hands.¹⁸ Now a house of holiness and purity is being built, one that will continue the chain of the fathers through the power of the fathers' mesirus nefesh. At such a celebration, then, there is a guarantee and an assurance that the children will continue in the ways of the fathers, in all the customs of Israel, and this brings great joy and makes a great impression in Heaven. All the more so when people from a generation that is “a brand plucked from the fire,”¹⁹ “survivors of the sword,”²⁰ are privileged to live to see their children's celebration, and through their strength the children continue in the way of the fathers: that makes the occasion a time of joy above.

9May Hashem grant that this celebration bring an outpouring of joy upon all of Klal Yisrael, and that we be privileged to know everlasting joy when the Chosen House, the Beis HaMikdash, is built, speedily. Amen.