Bo: Teach Them To Your Kids

It's really amazing to me how much of our religious observances center on children. We create rituals, songs, and observances to include them; we cook foods and desserts that will entice their taste buds, and leave them longing year after year; and every holiday and Biblical character comes with stories, legends, and myths that appeal to kids, and make them love being Jewish.
In this week's Torah portion, we discover where our focus on children first began. Towards the end of the story of the ten plagues, as the tenth one is about to hit, God decides to tell the Israelites about the laws of Passover. We learn about Matzah, we learn about Chametz, we even learn that the holiday is seven days long (God obviously meant 8 days if you live outside Israel...). Most importantly, we learn about the Mitzvah of teaching your children about Pesach. God says to Moses, "And when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this rite?' you shall say, 'It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, because God passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when God smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses.'" (Ex. 12:26-27)

Hang on a minute. We know that the children are there! This Passover sacrifice isn't being offered only by adults. So if the kids are present, why would they have to ask about the meaning of this ritual? It's because the commandment isn't just on Joe the Slave, who was literally saved from bondage. The Torah is speaking to all of us. God is instructing the Israelites on that day, but God is also addressing every single reader of this book. In every generation, children will ask about the crazy rituals and customs we observe because we are Jews; and we are all obligated to come up with answers.

But Judaism is a tricky religion. On the one hand, we are given a staple answer to give our kids: God saved ME from slavery. But we all know how woefully inadequate that answer is. Why? Because our children KNOW we weren't there! They know we didn't live through slavery in Egypt, and they're pretty certain we didn't trek through the desert for 40 years. So now we've got two options, and the reality is that our obligation as Jews incorporates both of them. First, we should imagine ourselves as having been redeemed from Egypt. We eat bitter herbs, we eat Matzah, and we generally recreate the story we're reading this week in the Torah, so that we'll all feel like we're actually there, and thus the story includes us as well.

More crucially, however, we are also meant to come up with our own answer to our children's questions. What are they really asking us? They want to know: "Why do you care?" They are trying to understand WHY Judaism is meaningful in our lives, and why they should make any effort to be Jewish. So what's the answer? Why read about the Exodus, why celebrate Pesach, and for goodness sake, why be Jewish at all?!? And the answer is... well, you tell me.

Shabbat Shalom!

Photos in this blog post:

1. CC image courtesy of zeevveez on Flickr

2. CC image courtesy of Sam Felder on Flickr

3. CC image courtesy of Clarkston SCAMP on Flickr

4. Photo taken by Rabbi Jeremy Gerber, 12/26/06

5. CC image courtesy of danagraves on Flickr