Page 32 - Harlem Pesach Companion 2021

Whaddaya Mean, “Wicked”?

By Evan Sachs

Ever since I was a kid, I always felt bothered by the fact
that, whenever we recounted the story of the Four Children
during Passover, the wicked child was always portrayed as,
well … wicked. All the poor kid asks is “What does
Passover mean to you?” and everybody rags on him. How
dare he, the story implies — how dare he distance himself
from the holiday by failing to include himself in the
question? He should have asked what the holiday means to
us, the rascal! With this attitude, the next thing we know,
we’ll be waving our fists at him and shouting, “Get off our
lawn!”

Now, don’t get me wrong — I love nothing more than being a crank-tastic curmudgeon.
If kvetching was an Olympic sport, I would be the reigning champion. In this case,
though, I don’t think the “wicked” child is distancing himself as much as the story
suggests. Instead, he simply shows a level of thoughtfulness that children often exhibit
when learning something new: He seems to recognize that what he’s asking about isn’t an
entirely objective, cut-and-dry subject. As a result, there is a wide variety of potential
perspectives, and he wants to learn about other people’s opinions before forming his own.
He’s still learning what Passover means to him, and once his perception of the holiday is
more fully formed, it might look different than those of his family and friends. He won’t
appreciate Passover any less — he’ll just appreciate it in his own unique way. So what
better way to form a nuanced understanding of the subject than to hear other people’s
interpretations?

Even in the niggling details, everybody celebrates Passover differently. Just ask a few
people what karpas means. While one family might immediately picture parsley, another
will happily grab an onion from the kitchen. These two hypothetical families might even
differ in how they treat the Four Questions, depending on the ages and personalities of
the people in their households.

And we find differences in more than just the practicalities of what we put on our Seder
plates or how we sing Mah Nishtanah. Passover’s tone and connotations can vary wildly
from person to person, depending on lived experiences. The holiday likely feels different
to me — a born-and-raised Canadian-American Jew — than it does to my mother, who
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