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Pesach (Shabbat Sat 31st March 15th Nissan) Laibl's Weekly Parasha Video

261 views · Published 28 March 2018 · 2:03 · Indexed 24 October 2026

Channel: Spiritgrow · 2018 · Education

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Pesach (Shabbat Sat 31st March 15th Nissan) 
Laibl's Weekly Parasha Video

The Transformation of the Wicked Son 

SUMMARY: The central motif of the Pesach Seder is our children. They are encouraged to question, contribute and even be mischievous. Even the so-called wicked son is an attribute of the family. Sure had he been in Egypt of old he may have been in a bit of a pickle, but today he has the potential to grow, change and evolve in a warm and loving family setting.  Hence his placement next to the wise son in the narrative of the Haggada.

Notes:
• Friday night is Pesach – the most celebrated family Yom Tov in the world. Our senses are sensated with food fragrances and distilled Passover tastes that have been present at our tables for thousands of years. There is an overt feel of joy, community, and liberation. 
• But the central feature always remains the children: arousing the curiosity, plying them with questions, prompting them to ask and ask. The Pesach Seder is a kid’s paradise as they bask in the centrality of their role performing the Ma Nishtana on their Carnegie Hall stage, and recognizing their impregnable negotiation upper hand they hold for the return of the Afikoman they secreted away! 
• Except the wicked son. He is responded to roughly and gruffly: “had you been in Egypt you would never have got out”. The warm hearted and compassionate Jewish parent seems to be totally absent in the biting and cold response to that son’s cynical comment cum question: “what’s all this stuff to you anyway?”  – excluding himself from the fold.
• The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that the response noted above is far from cutting and heartless. The narrative is totally misread.  The parent is really saying:  “if you would have behaved like that back then – there in  Egypt – you might have perished with the 80% who never left. But you are here, in the warmth of our home, and we believe in you even if you have a veneer of sarcasm and rebelliousness. We love you nevertheless, and have absolute faith that beneath the surface beats both curiosity and a quest for insight, something that will mature in time.”
•  That’s why the wicked son’s narrative is placed next to the wise son’s.  Because it is the wise son who will influence the seemingly wicked one But in truth there is no such thing as a wicked son – just the need for wisdom, compassion and knowing  that only words from the heart will reach the heart. That is the message of the humble, egoless Matza. Egoless parents will transform the egotistic, but really insecure, wayward son.

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