Romach

Friday, April 07, 2006

Hagaddah - *Three* Sons

[Edit: Sorry, made a mistake. Its not the Toras Chaim haggadah, that was in front of me as I wrote the post. Its actually the Goldschmidt hagadah]

The Four Sons. Probably one of the most talked about parts of the Hagaddah.
I never got it. I'm not a grammarian, but to me it seems that the rasha (evil) and chacham (good) sons are saying the same thing. Every year I asked the same question, no one could answer it. But, thanks to the Goldschmidt hagadah from Mossad Bialik Yerushalayim , I've found that there are other girsayos (texts) of the Four Sons. And they seem to make more sense. Especially the Yerushalmi. I don't have the hagaddah handy, but when I do (Sunday) I'll post the different girsa.

Oh, right. The title of the post. One last thing. You can have a child who is a rasha and a chacham. Who says they have to be opposite? It's not good and evil, its wise/intelligent/smart and evil. The most devilish people are usually the wisest and most intelligent. (Yes, the other two sons aren't opposites either, but everyone seems to contrast the chacham and rasha).