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The Fifth Child
This Passover, Ask Questions For Those Who Cannot
At the Passover Seder we are taught to imagine Four Children, who question the seder and the Passover tradition.
The Wise Child asks how one carries out a seder, implying he or she will learn and continue tradition.
The Wicked Child asks why Passover is important, specifically to you, the adult/teacher, thereby isolating and elevating his or herself from others. Isolationism, narcissism, spite, and cynicism is seen as true evil.
The Simple Child simply wants to know what’s going on — what is this whole holiday about, which is simultaneously asking the most direct and the most complex question of them all.
Then there is The Child Who Does Not Know How To Ask, to whom we simply tell “It is because of what the Almighty did for me when I left Egypt [that we celebrate].” This is done to light a spark, inviting them to question and inspire them to learn more down the road.
But I suggest a Fifth Child — The Child Who Is Not Able To Ask; forbidden from questioning the world around them. In the recent past, Jewish scholars have suggested a child that represents the children of the Holocaust, for which the inability to question was almost definitive to their lives cut short. But I see the Fifth Child today as well.
