Questions tagged [four-sons]
The four archetypical sons described in the Passover Haggadah and other rabbinic sources: 1) The wise son. 2) The wicked son. 3) The simple son. 4) The son who does not know how to ask.
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Is the "wicked son" of the Haggadah an apostate Jew?
I've seen a few sources that seem to understand that the wicked son of the Haggadah was an apostate Jew, who converted to Christianity. See for example, this answer and linked article, as well as ...
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The Chacham, the Rasha, the She'eino Yodeya Lish'ol, and... What's that other son again?
In the Haggadah, the third son is known as the "Tam" ("innocent" or "simple") child. In the version presented in the Yerushalmi, he is known as the "Tipeish" ("stupid") child, a drastically different ...
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Responses to the Chacham and Tam
In the Haggadah, the response to the Chacham is teaching him the halachos of Pesach, whereas the response to the Tam is that Hashem took us out of Mitzraim with a strong arm.
Yet, in the Yerushalmi, ...
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Why tell the wise son "like the Pesach rules"?
From the hagada:
חָכָם מָה הוּא אוֹמֵר מָה הָעֵדֹת וְהַחֻקִּים וְהַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה׳ א׳ אֶתְכֶם.
וְאַף אַתָּה אֱמָר לוֹ כְּהִלְכוֹת הַפֶּסַח אֵין מַפְטִירִין אַחַר הַפֶּסַח אֲפִיקוֹמָן....
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What עִיקָר is the wicked son denying?
In the haggadah (Mechon Mamre's edition of the Hagadah at the end of Hilkhot Chametz u-Matzah and in some editions of the Mekhilta on Shemot 13:14), regarding the wicked son it states
וּלְפִי ...
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Alternative (non-gematria) explanations of the "remove his teeth" line
Are there any alternative answers historically given as to why the Hagadah (page 8 of this) says to remove the wicked son's teeth, besides the usual gematria answer?
Related: Source of the "...
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Source of the "remove his teeth" gematria
In the Hagadah (page 8 of here), there is a line by the wicked son that says you should "remove his teeth" (hakeih et shinav). A common explanation is that the gematria of "rasha" (reish shin ein: 570)...
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Why are some sons' answers different from what's written in the Torah?
In the Hagada, the 4 sons ask questions (except, of course, for the son who doesn't know how to ask…), and they get answers.
In most cases, both the questions and the answers are put in the form of ...
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The 4 sons - the evil son
Why on the seder are we excluding the evil son. In the Hagada it says "break his teeth,etc", "tell him if you were in Egypt you would not have been redeemed".
Yet on Yom Kipur we say on kol nidrei we ...
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Why is the wicked son sanctioned for doing what the wise son does?
In the Passover Hagada we're told about the four sons.
The second one is called wicked because he asks, "What is this service to you?!" ("מה העבודה הזאת לכם?") (emphasis mine), while the first one is ...
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How do we know the rasha would not have been redeemed?
The Haggada speaks about 4 sons, the second of which is called "wicked". He distances himself from G-d's commandment, and in turn is told that if he had been in Egypt he would not have been redeemed. ...
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Rashi's unusual phrasing of the four sons
At the end of Parashat Bo (Exodus 13:14), Rashi enumerates the Four Sons of the Passover Seder:
דברה תורה כנגד ארבעה בנים, רשע ושאינו יודע לשאול והשואל דרך סתומה והשואל דרך חכמה
The Torah ...
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