Young People Today!!
Rabbi Yosef Benarroch

Traditionally the festival of Pesah is known as the holiday where our youth play a central role. The entire "Seder" night revolves around our children. It is the youngest who asks the four questions. Jewish law requires the adults to do anything that will arouse children's curiosity thus leading them to question even more. One of the highlights of the Hagadah is the section that centers on the four different types of children. What is the nature of this adult and youth relationship that so identifies Pesah in general and the "Seder" night in specific?

At first glance it would appear that the relationship of the adult and the youth on the "Seder" night is one directional. We, the adults, are the educators and our young participants are the educated. They ask the questions and we provide the answers. I believe that there is more to this relationship than meets the eye. I believe that one of the messages of the Hagadah is that our children give us more than we think. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is we, the adults, who are the receivers. Let me explain.

For years I was bothered by a certain section in the Hagadah. After we complete the section of "Avadeem Hayeenu" we read a story about five great Rabbis who were gathered together to celebrate the "Seder" night in the city of "Benei Berak". Those Rabbis were Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon. They stayed up all night retelling the exodus story until their students came to inform them that the time to recite the morning "Shema" had arrived. The placement of this story at this juncture in the Hagadah is logical. The previous section concluded with a statement that any person who elaborates on the exodus story is praiseworthy. This story of the five Rabbis, staying up all night elaborating on the story, is a fitting continuation.

After the story of the five Rabbis the Hagadah then brings a legal ruling of one of those Rabbis. It is this story that troubles me. The section begins with a question by Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya. He was troubled over a certain matter in Jewish law. We are commanded to recall the exodus from Egypt every day of the year. This law is extrapolated from the verse that states, "And you shall remember the day you left Egypt all the days of your life". From this verse Rabbi Elazar understood that we are to remember the exodus during the daylight hours of each day as the verse explicitly states, "the days of your life". He was therefore perplexed whether or not one must also remember the exodus during the nights of the year. In the section of the Hagadah he receives his answer from the sage Ben Zoma who extrapolates the answer from one redundant word. He comments that the word "All" in the aforementioned verse is redundant, as the Torah could have simply said, "Remember the day you left Egypt the days of your life". There are no redundancies in the Torah so that extra "all" he explains must come to teach us something. That extra word, states Ben Zoma, teaches us that the exodus must also be remembered during the nights. "All" in this case means both the days and the nights it is all-inclusive.

My difficulty with the inclusion of this section into the Hagadah is that it has nothing to do with the "Seder" night. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya is discussing the obligation to remember the exodus on the other 364 days of the year. You see there are two commandments regarding the exodus, one is to retell the story and one is to remember the story. The "Seder" is about retelling the story. The statement of Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya has to do with remembering the exodus the other 364 days of the year, it has nothing to do with the "Seder" experience itself, which requires retelling the story and not merely remembering it. Why then is his intricately detailed statement included in the Hagadah? One answer is that since he was one of the five Rabbis mentioned in the previous section it is logical that the Hagadah then include a story attributed to him. But if that is the case then the Hagadah should have recorded statements by the other four Rabbis as well.

The answer once again has to do with one word. In almost all the printed Hagadot the story is introduced as follows, "Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya said, it is as if I am seventy years old…". In the version of the Hagadah that is read by Yemenite Jews there is one extra word that appears in that introduction that changes the entire meaning of the section. In the Yemenite version the section is introduced as follows, "Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya said to them (lahem)". That word "lahem" (to them) changes everything because it turns this section into a continuation of the previous section and not independent of it. It is at that same Passover "Seder" when all the five Rabbis are celebrating together that Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya teaches his law that the Exodus must be remembered during the nights as well. But why now, what compelled him to teach this law specifically on this "Seder" night in Benei Berak in the presence of the other four great Rabbis?

It has been suggested that this "Seder" night was a difficult one in Jewish history. These were not simple times for the Jewish people who were living under great Roman oppression. The Temple had been destroyed and Jewish blood was cheap in the eyes of the Romans. In fact, some suggest that this "Seder" took place after the Bar Kochba revolt where tens of thousands of Jews were killed.

They were times where despair could easily overcome the nation. It was the duty and obligation of these five great Rabbis who were the leaders of the nation to instill hope into the people. They gathered on this night in Benei Berak to plot a strategy.

It is Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya that steps up to the plate. He is the youngest of the bunch. In fact the story that begins with the words, "it is as if I am seventy years old" is not what it appears. The Talmud in the Tractate of Berakhot explains that at the age of eighteen he was instituted as the head of the greatest Torah academy replacing the elder sage Rabbi Gamliel. Fearing that at eighteen years old the elders would not respect him a miracle occurred over night and his beard turned into long strands of white hair giving him the appearance of a respectable looking seventy year old sage.

Who was this eighteen year old that led the Jewish nation? Who was this eighteen year old that the Rabbis of Benei Berak looked to for guidance in these troubled times? Imagine today an eighteen-year-old President of the United States. What could anyone possibly learn from him? The answer is a lot.

Maybe now we can understand the intricate legal question posited by Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya. All the days of his life he knew that Jews were obligated to thank G-d and have faith in Him because He redeemed us from Egypt. But that obligation was thought to be only during the day. Perhaps day here means more than just light hours. Perhaps day is symbolic of the good times in Jewish history when the sun shines and Jews are free and safe. Maybe what Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya meant to say was that all the days of my life I understood how to thank G-d and have faith in G-d when the sun shines and everything is good. What he was unsure of was do we do the same at night? Are we to thank G-d and strengthen our faith in Him even at night when we are surrounded by oppression and suffering. He answers with an unequivocal YES. We must have faith in Hashem ALL the days of our lives and even in the darkest moments. That a dear friend is what Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya said "Lahem" (to them) on that night.

The great Rabbis of the time needed to hear those words from an eighteen year old teenager and so do we need to hear his words every Passover and during all the days of our lives. We are often critical of youth and their values. Which adult amongst us hasn't uttered the word, "we never did that when we were teenagers" or "what's happening with young people today". But dear friends there is something so beautiful and vital that we can learn from our youth. As we grow older we become skeptical, we trust less and suspect more. We have less faith and more concerns. We let ourselves enjoy less and we worry more. Worst of all, we are zapped of our idealism. Not so our youth, they are filled with idealism and hope. There is much we can learn from our teenagers, I should know because I have five of them.

At this year's "Seder" my oldest son Chananel (who is seventeen) commented on the cup of Elijah that we fill. He stated that he had no doubt that by morning it would be empty. I am not sure he meant that he would be doing the emptying or that he had great faith that Elijah would indeed arrive during the night to drink his cup. His intentions were made clear to me near the end of the "Seder" when we opened the door for Elijah. My son commented that it is not enough to open the door for Elijah the Prophet one day of the year. In fact, he continued, every time you open any door ALL the days of the year you have to have faith that Elijah the Prophet will walk through with you. WOW what faith, what idealism from a seventeen year old. Indeed at the "Seder" it is not only the adults who teach the youth. They too are our teachers may G-d bless them.