The necessity of asking questions.

It's no accident that Parshad Boh,

the section that deals with the culminating plagues in 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's 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 falters and we lose our way. What's fascinating, though, is the way the terror

emphasizes the fact that children must ask questions. Two of the three passages in our

parishes speak of this. And when your children ask you, what does this ceremony mean to you?

Then tell them it's 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.

And again, 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. There's another passage later in the Torah that also speaks of a question asked by a child. In the future, when your son asks you, what's the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws,

the Lord our God has commanded you, then tell him, we were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt,

that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

That is in Parshad Vá'at Khanan in Deuteronomy chapter 6.

The other passage in today's Parasha is the only one that doesn't mention a question.

On that day, you shall tell your son, I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.

These four passages have become famous because of their appearance in the Haggadah on Pesach.

They represent 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 conclusion that one, children should ask questions. Two, the Pesach

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