TORAH PORTION
AMERICAN
CHRONICLES
AV of
Norman Xockwell
The Wicked Child
And Parents' Sins
Shabbat Chol Hamoed Passover:
Exodus 33:12-34:26; Numbers 28:19-
25; Ezekiel 37:1-14.
Efrat, Israel
children" is often far greater than
that of "divorced parents;" to their
ne of the more fascinating
dying day, children of alcoholics
aspects of the Haggadah is
or sexual deviants bear the burden
the eternal tale of the Four
of their parents' frailty and — to a
Children. No matter how often we
lesser degree — many of us carry
come across these four archetypes,
the scars of a wrong word or deed
there is always an addi-
expressed by a parent at a
tional layer of meaning to
critical phase of our lives.
discover.
Indeed, the Jews in exile
Granted, the words
were born in a strange
attributed to the wicked
land, forced to suffer an
child are condescending
alien fate, because their
and exclusionary, setting
parents and/or grand-
up a situation in which he
parents sinned and were
— the child — is on the
deemed culpable of being
outside, judging, almost
cast off from the land of
mocking those who are on
their
fathers.
Rabbi Shlomo
the inside, those who feel
If
a
child around the
Ris kin
connected to the aspira-
seder
table
declares with
Specia I to the
tions of the festival. "Why
a
challenge
rather than
Jewish News
are `you' going through
asks with a will to under-
all of this hard work,"
stand, if he/she refers to
the wicked child seems to imply,
the ritual as "work" and excludes
critical of the entire process. The
him/herself from the congregation
wicked child's words are preceded
of Israel, if — in effect — his/her
with: "When your children say to
teeth remain sourly set on edge in
you; what is this service to you"
critique of the entire religious and
(Exodus 12:26). In other words, the
familial establishment, then you, the
wise child asks his/her parents; the
parents, must consider that it was
wicked child tells them!
possibly "you who set his teeth on
If our purpose is to bring some-
edge" because of the sour message
one from the "outside" closer to the
which you projected as a parent and
"inside," striking or castigating him
as a representative of the Jewish
is hardly the way to accomplish that. chain of being.
It would seem to me that the leader
Perhaps you did not listen to your
of the seder must remove this child's child carefully enough, engage him/
sharply expressed self-exclusion by
her in the religious process often
means of the warmth and even pas-
enough, grant him/her time enough.
sion of familial love and acceptance.
Those whose teeth are sour must
From a psychological and histori-
be showered with the kind of love
cal point of view, life situations that
which draws them into the collective
we all live through bear testimony to reality of Klal Yisrael so that they
the awesome degree to which chil-
can experience, with the rest of us,
dren suffer for the weaknesses and
the pain of the Egyptian servitude
failings of their parents, even to the
and the freedom of the Exodus as if
point of God seemingly "... visiting
they had lived through them them-
the iniquity of the fathers upon the
selves, intimately linking them to
children, and upon the children's
the nation's heart. H
children, unto the third and unto the
fourth generation." [Exodus 34:7]
Shlomo Riskin is chancellor of Ohr Torah
After all, the pain of "divorced
Stone and chief rabbi of Efrat, Israel.
0
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Norman Rockwell. American; Artist Facing plank Convas (The Deadline) (detail).1938; oil on canvas. Cover illustration for The
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American Chronicles has been made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. American Masterpieces Program. In
Detroit, support has been provided by the Michigan Councll for Arts and Cutturat Affairs and the City of Detroit. Publication support has
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