The Fifth Son

By Rav Nachman Kahana


The hagada gives expression to the Torah’s directive to explain to each child the miracles of the exodus from Egyptian bondage. The wise son according to his understanding, down to the one whose simplicity make him disinterested in the past and future of our nation.

This is the obligation of a father on the seder night, but it is the obligation of every rav to teach the belief in the Jewish God to all Jews every day of the year.

For years I have taken the intellectual initiative to convince "stragglers behind the camp" of the truth of the Torah; of our being chosen by HaShem as His people and of our historic right and obligation to Eretz Yisrael etc.

But, as I view things today, I am convinced that in this upside down world in which we live, even this activity is distorted. It is not for us to convince Jews of the truth in our heritage, quite the opposite, the onus of proof is upon the "break away" to justify his rejection of 3500 years of Halachic Judaism and the 175 generations of unbroken conviction that HaShem revealed Himself at Mount Sinai and there He gave us His Torah. It is not I who has to prove that God created the world, it is the break away who has to explain the origin of all existence.

The break away is the one who has to prove that the ham sandwich and the marriage to a gentile is true, whereas Avraham, Moshe, King David, the Bet Hamikdash are fiction. That the teachings of his professor of philosophy 101 can stand over the TaNach, Mishna, Gemara, Shulchan Aruch, tens of thousands of talmidei chachamim who have dedicated their lives to the study of Torah, and the many millions of Jews who have stood steadfastly in their beliefs.

The same applies to my efforts in convincing Jews in the galut that the time has come to return home. The truth is that we do not have to convince them. It is they who have to justify their remaining in the galut, when the hand of HaShem is shown daily here in Eretz Yisrael and the dangers in galut loom ever greater with each passing day.

Our generation has added another "son" to the Hagada - the blind and deaf one - blind to the miracles in the Holy Land and deaf to the dangers to his Judaism, and very life, in the galut.

So this year, set a place at the seder table for the fifth son - the spiritually blind and deaf mute of the 2000 year old galut - whose status is inferior to even that of the aiyno yoday’a lish’ol (he who does not know how to ask).