50 | JANUARY 26 • 2023 

I

t is no accident that Parshat 
Bo, the section that deals 
with the culminating plagues 
and the Exodus, should turn 
three times to the subject of 
children and the duty of parents 
to educate them. As Jews, we 
believe that to defend a country 
you need an army, 
but to defend a 
civilization you 
need education.
Freedom is 
lost when it is 
taken for granted. 
Unless parents 
hand on their 
memories and ideals to the next 
generation — the story of how 
they won their freedom and the 
battles they had to fight along 
the way — the long journey fal-
ters, and we lose our way.
What is fascinating is the way 
the Torah emphasizes the fact 
that children must ask questions. 
Two of the three passages in our 
parshah speak of this:

“
And when your children ask 
you, ‘What does this ceremony 
mean to you?’ then tell them, 
‘It is the Passover sacrifice to 
the Lord, who passed over the 

houses of the Israelites in Egypt 
and spared our homes when He 
struck down the Egyptians.
’” Ex. 
12:26-27

“In days to come, when your 
son asks you, ‘What does this 
mean?’ say to him, ‘With a 
mighty hand the Lord brought 
us out of Egypt, out of the land 
of slavery.
’” Ex. 13:14
Another passage later in the 
Torah also speaks of questions 
asked by a child: “In the future, 
when your son asks you, ‘What 
is the meaning of the stipula-
tions, decrees and laws the Lord 
our God has commanded you?’ 
tell him: ‘We were slaves of 
Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord 
brought us out of Egypt with a 
mighty hand.
’” Deut. 6:20-21
The other passage in today’s 
parshah, the only one that does 
not mention a question, is:

“On that day tell your son, ‘I 
do this because of what the Lord 
did for me when I came out of 
Egypt.
’” Ex. 13:8
These four passages have 
become famous because of their 
appearance in the Haggadah 
on Pesach. They are the four 
children: one wise, one wicked 

or rebellious, one simple and 
“one who does not know how 
to ask.
” Reading them together, 
the Sages came to the conclu-
sion that [1] children should 
ask questions, [2] the Pesach 
narrative must be constructed 
in response to, and begin with, 
questions asked by a child, [3] it 
is the duty of a parent to encour-
age children to ask questions, 
and [4] the child who does not 
yet know how to ask should be 
taught to ask.

There is nothing natural 
about this at all. To the contrary, 
it goes dramatically against the 
grain of history. Most traditional 
cultures see it as the task of a 
parent or teacher to instruct, 
guide or command. The task of 
the child is to obey. “Children 
should be seen, not heard,
” goes 
the English proverb. “Children, 
be obedient to your parents in 
all things, for this is well-pleas-
ing to the Lord,
” says a Christian 
text. Socrates, who spent his life 
teaching people to ask questions, 
was condemned by the citizens 
of Athens for corrupting the 
young. In Judaism, the opposite 
is true. It is a religious duty to 

teach our children to ask ques-
tions. That is how they grow.
Judaism is the rarest of phe-
nomena: a faith based on asking 
questions, sometimes deep and 
difficult ones that seem to shake 
the very foundations of faith 
itself. “Shall the Judge of all the 
Earth not do justice?” asked 
Abraham. “Why, Lord, why have 
you brought trouble on this peo-
ple?” asked Moses. “Why does 
the way of the wicked prosper?” 
“Why do all the faithless live at 
ease?” asked Jeremiah.
The book of Job is largely 
constructed out of questions, 
and God’s answer consists of 
four chapters of yet deeper ques-
tions: “Where were you when I 
laid the Earth’s foundation? … 
Can you catch Leviathan with a 
hook? … Will it make an agree-
ment with you and let you take 
it as your slave for life?”
 In yeshivah, the highest acco-
lade is to ask a good question: 
“Du fregst a gutte kasha,
” Rabbi 
Abraham Twersky, a deeply reli-
gious psychiatrist, tells of how 
when he was young, his teacher 
would relish challenges to his 
arguments. In his broken English, 
he would say, “You right! You 
100 prozent right! Now I show 
you where you wrong.
”
Isadore Rabi, winner of a 
Nobel Prize in physics, was once 
asked why he became a scientist. 
He replied, “My mother made 
me a scientist without ever 
knowing it. Every other child 
would come back from school 
and be asked, ‘What did you 
learn today?’ But my mother 
used to ask: ‘Izzy, did you ask a 
good question today?’ That made 
the difference. Asking good ques-
tions made me a scientist.
”
Judaism is not a religion 
of blind obedience. Indeed, 
astonishingly in a religion of 
613 commandments, there is 
no Hebrew word that means 
“to obey.
” When Hebrew was 
revived as a living language in 

The Necessity of 
Asking Questions

continued on page 51

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks