Parshat Bo

1999

(Exodus 10:1-13:16)

HISTORY, MEMORY AND THE HAGADAH

Parshat Bo continues with the pugnacious proclivities of Providence. The plagues intensify culminating with the slaying of the first-born Egyptians, and, finally the Hebrew slaves are given their walking/running papers. After all this high drama, the Exodus from Egypt concludes with a mitzvah:

Exodus 13:13-16

"And every firstborn of men, among your sons, you are to redeem. It shall be when your child asks you on the morrow, saying: What does this mean? You are to say to him: By strength of hand YHWH brought us out of Egypt, out of a house of serfs. And it was when Pharaoh hardened (his heart) against sending us free, that YHWH killed every firstborn throughout the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of man to the firstborn of beast. Therefore I myself slaughter-offer to YHWH every (animal) breacher of a womb, the males; and every firstborn among my sons I redeem. It shall be for a sign on your hand and for headbands between your eyes, for by strength of hand YHWH brought us out of Egypt."

Your Torah Navigator

1. What ceremony prompts the child to ask "What does this mean?" 2. Is this the purpose of the ceremony? 3. In the Passover Hagadah, this verse is attributed to one of the four sons, the "simple child." Yet, it is clear that the context of the question is not the Seder, but the ceremony of redeeming the first child. Why do the rabbis re-contextualize this verse for the Passover Seder?

The simple meaning of the verse is clear. First we are told that we must redeem the first born, and we are obliged to explain to the first born why we are doing this. The Torah is telling us that this is a teachable moment.

A Word

The writers of the Hagadah certainly knew the context of this verse. It does refer to the Exodus, but its context is not necessarily the Seder. So, the sages removed the four instances where questions were asked about the Exodus and used the Seder as a reminder of our pedagogical responsibility.

They noticed that the way the questions were phrased were very different. These questions were not only referring to their particular contexts, but they address our responsibility to educate all of our children: The wise, the wicked, the simple, and the one who is incapable of engaging.

The Torah gave us the history, but it also mandated that cultural education, the responsibility for our community's collective memory, begins at home. By noticing that the different questions quoted in the Torah reflect different temperaments, the sages see the Torah reminding us that education must be nuanced and child-centered. The Hagadah is not just a recounting of our story, but a reminder of how our story needs to be told.

Also, the rabbis remind us that learning is not to be rote ritual. The Torah identified one teachable moment, the rabbis take their cue from the Torah and identify another. In fact, the rabbis are constantly seeking out those moments in our daily ritual life when memory of the exodus should be recounted. It is not enough to merely recount, we must also look for fresh, creative opportunities to teach.