Shnayim Yomi - Bo - Sh'vi'i - #7 - R Yaakov Glasser - The Seder Night Philosophy Learning Through Qs

Paras Bo, the aliyah of Shvi. This aliyah is probably one of the most climactic in the entire Safer Shimos. This is the aliyah where we finally encounter the Exodus from Egypt Mitzim itself. And the Torah tells us as the experience is unfolding, as the experience is coming to fruition, the Torah tells us that commands Mosher Rabenu to ensure that we crystallize these moments in our national consciousness and that we are able to perpetuate this story to the next generation. And the way that it is formulated is when your children ask questions. We know we're told there's a mitzvah to remember each and every day. And there's also a special mitzvah on Sed night [snorts] to remember this moment of Jewish history. And Rabim famously asks what's the difference between the general mitzvah that we have each and every day to remember and the special experience of sed and he provides a number of answers. It has to be done in an experiential form. It has to be done in a structured form. But one of his answers is it has to be done. It has to be done with questions and answers. And that's what's so spectacular about the educational philosophy of Seder Knight. And that is that we provoke questions within our children. We do things that are strange that we can't even fully account for just so we will peique their curiosity and that curiosity will overflow to other dimensions of their religious yearning. And the reason why that's so central is because there's such a fundamental difference between instilling a narrative in sort of a unidirectional imposing manner and when the narrative is inculcated as a result of the desire and reach of the child or of the other individual for understanding, meaning and connection. We encourage questioning. We are not a dogmatic people that are simply seeking to just instill fundamental ideas within the minds and hearts of our kids. We want them to ask. We want them to challenge. We want them to to we want them to be curious. We want them to want to know, not just to know. And so that is a dynamic of the misor that is nurtured specifically on sed are we creating homes and contexts of that our children are primed to be asking to be searching to be wondering or are we just trying to hand them a corpus of information and expect them to internalize it and live it as values that are meaningful to them. That is at the core what tells Moshe, we're leaving. It's such an overwhelming experience for everyone who's there. But the real success of tonight is whether or not in future generations our children will come to us and say, "What happened? What are we about? What do we stand for? Why is this our story? What was the purpose of all of this?" Those are the questions of Seder Knight. And they come from many different types of children. And we answer all of them no matter what their disposition is in order to hold them as part of the larger Jewish people.