The night before pesach when my younger daughter was about 1.3 years old, my wife and I were doing bidkas chameitz with her and her older sister. I heard her older sister tell her little sister, "And then we are going to look for chomeitz with the candle and sweep it up with the feather." So cute. Then I realized that since my older daughter was all of 2.6 years older than her younger sibling -- meaning she was just shy of 4 years old -- had only really seen this ceremony once before (maybe twice, if you count when she was under 2). That's amazing, no? These simple ceremonies, required by halacha for very practical reasons, make a deep and lasting impression on even the youngest of participants.
This year on the way home from a chol ha'mo'ed trip with some of my younger grandchildren, I told my 11 year old granddaughter about being at a seder with my bubbie. "I was at a seder with my bubbie and it was the same seder we had last night. And she told me it was the same seder she went to when she was a little girl. Do you know how long ago my bubbie was born?" "No..." "She was born more than a hundred years ago!" "Really? Wow... you are really old, zeidy!" Ahem... yes. "And my bubbie told me that her zeidy told her that they had the same seder when he was a little boy. That means that you know someone (me) who spoke to someone (my bubbie) who learned about Yetzias Mitzraim from her zeidy. That is like 200 years ago when my bubbie's zeidy was a little boy. Do that 15 or so times and you are all the way back to us in Mitrayim." Now her response was, with big eyes, "That's not very long ago!" I pressed the point: "You know I would never lie to you." "Of course not!" "Do you think my bubbie ever lied to me, or her zeidy to my bubbie?" "Bubbies and zeidies? No!" (Yes, she really does speak with a lot of exclamation points. She is quite adorable.)
Thousands of years sounds like a long time. 15 or 20 trustworthy eye witnesses -- bubbie and zeidy to eineklach -- is not so long ago at all.
Comments