The Haggadah teaches us to pay close attention to our children. There are times when it is appropriate for a seder to focus on lengthy and intricate discussions of halacha and hashkafah, but for the most part, the seder is meant to center on storytelling, youthful ideas, and playfulness.
Some of us may think this is only true when there are young children at the table, but Rav Dessler writes otherwise. He teaches that the youthful approach to the seder is not only for our children, but for the child within us as well.
This is the deeper opportunity of the seder. To find the younger parts of ourselves that may not yet know that Hashem loves them, that Hashem is with them, and that Hashem took them out of Mitzrayim. And to speak to those parts about Yetzias Mitzrayim — to show them what it means to believe in Hashem, what it means to sing, to cry, to recline, and to feel the nobility of being a child of G-d.
Thank You, Hashem, for a night that speaks not only to our minds, but to the most tender and hopeful parts of our hearts.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 74.
