show them how high it

When you take the people out of Egypt, they will

serve G-d upon this mountain. (Shemos 3:12)
The Hagadah says, “The
Torah speaks of four sons: one
righteous, one wicked, one
simple and one who does not
know how to ask. The wicked
son says, ‘Why do you need
this service?’ The reply he
is given is, ‘If you had been
there, you would not have
been redeemed.’” Why is it
necessary to tell this to the
wicked son?
Rabbi Yaakov Teitelbaum
said that although the Hagadah
abridges the story, from the
reply to the wicked son we
can infer what his argument
must have been. He must
have argued that he could
accomplish the redemption
without all these mitzvos.
“What do you need them for?”
he sneers. “All one has to do
to be a Jew is love the Land
of Israel and speak Hebrew.
was possible to go, and
then He let them down
again so that they could
work on themselves in
With that alone we could the 49 days preceding
have been redeemed from the Giving of the Torah at Sinai.
Egypt.” We reply to him, “The The Jews felt their spiritual
entire purpose of the Exodus
lack, and realized for the first
was to “serve G-d upon this
time that they had been in
mountain” i.e. to receive the
a spiritual exile as well as a
mitzvos of the Torah. If you
physical one. Now they were
had been there and refused
at last free from the physical
to do mitzvos, you would not
exile, and they were able to
have been redeemed. Your
begin working on their spiritual
Land and your Hebrew would
deficiencies. This is why maror
not have helped you!”
– the bitterness of that spiritual
On Pesach night we eat exile – comes only after matzo
matzo and then maror. The – the physical redemption.
Gerrer Rebbe asked that
seemingly, the order should The final freedom came only
have been reversed. The when the Jews received the
slavery in Egypt came before Torah on Mount Sinai. Chazal
the redemption, so the maror, therefore say that “there is
symbolizing slavery, should no free man like the man who
be before the matzo, which learns Torah” (Pirkei Avos
symbolizes redemption. He 6:2). But the wicked son, who
answers that on the day of the has no interest in this sort of
Exodus, G-d lifted up the Jews freedom, would not have been
to a very high spiritual level to redeemed.

‫(קאהן) נפטרה ג' תשרי תשע"ג‬ ‫לע"נ מרים לאה צפורה בת ר' שמואל ע"ה‬
‫לע"נ הרה"ח ר' מנשה ב"ר ישעי' יעקב ע"ה (בירנבוים) נפטר כ' סיון תשע"ב‬
‫לע"נ ר' חיים ב"ר מתתי' ע"ה (ראטה) נפטר ערב יוה"ק תשס"ט‬