A few questions

D’var Torah from January 23, 2026

Parshat Bo

Part 1: Passover + questions

In a couple months, we will sit around our tables for the Passover seder.

We will walk through the symbols and lessons and questions of the story of the Exodus.

The seder is, in many ways, a response to a child’s wondering. So, we infuse the story with music, food, and mathematical puzzles; all as a way to keep the kids engaged long enough to teach them our most important story.

A couple months before Passover arrives, right about now, we read the story of the Exodus as part of our yearly cycle of Torah.

Both the timing of Passover and the timing of our torah readings tend to feel synchronistic.

Part 2: The story

You may be familiar with the story of the Exodus from The Prince of Egypt or the Ten Commandments depending on how old you are.

Here is the simple version:

The Israelites became too numerous and a threat to the Pharaoh so he made them slaves. The Israelites go on to suffer over 400 years of harsh slavery. Until one day, a baby Moses arrives, given up by his Israelite mother, in the hopes of saving his life, and adopted by the Pharaoh's daughter. God chooses Moses, a man of both worlds, a man of less than stellar morality, and a man with a stutter, to demand to the current Pharaoh that he should release the Israelites.

This week, we pick up our story mid-negotiation with Pharoah. Through Moses, God has brought 7 plagues upon the people of Egypt. In this portion, we learn of the final three plagues: locust, darkness, and death of the firstborn. In addition, we learn about the holiday of Passover, and that we should commemorate it every year. Finally, Pharoah demands that the Israelites leave at once.

Part 3: 4 children

There are many kinds of questions we could ask about a story like this.

The Passover seder presents us with 4 children who each ask a different flavor question about Passover + the Exodus from Egypt.

the wise child

the wicked child

the simple child

the child who does not know how to ask

Part 3a: Wise child

The wise child asks:

“What laws has God commanded you?”

To her we might answer:

I hear that you want to know more. You are eager for information. You are eager to know what to do.

To her we would reply:

Every year, we clean our lives and our homes of bread to honor how we got free.

To honor the epic story of liberation that is at the core of our peoplehood.

Once we were slaves, and God took us out with a mighty and an outstretched arm.

And because of this, we must always remain wildly awake to the liberation yet unrealised. We must be vigilantly empathetic to the stranger in the foreign land.

Part 3b: Wicked child

The wicked child asks:

“What is this to you?”

A rather unassuming question, the Haggadah takes issue with his use of the phrase, “to you”. As it says, “‘to you’ and not to him. When he sets himself apart from the community, he denies the very core of our beliefs.”

We might say something a bit more kind.

I hear in your tone that you are angry. That you are upset, frustrated, fiery. Perhaps you yourself feel cut off from the community. Cut off from your tradition because it has been obscured and warped.

It’s okay to be angry.

You can be angry at me. Angry at Pharoah. Angry at God.

You can leave and come back.

As much as our traditional Haggadah has drawn a line in the sand, in truth, God redeemed us all from Egypt. No matter how angry.

Part 3c: Simple child

The simple child asks “What is this?”

To the simple child we might say:

I hear that you need this to be clear and unambiguous.

This is a story of bad and good.

It is a story of God’s presence in history. God’s power over both the bad and the good.

May you find comfort in the victory of good over evil. Even after a long wait.

May you find comfort in our simpleness in God’s presence. That as much as we want to spin our wheels, there are spiritual forces beyond our control.

Part 3d: The child who doesn’t know how to ask

For the child who doesn’t know how to ask, we might sit with them in their silence. In their overwhelm. In their confusion. We might silently agree. There’s a lot here. A lot in this story. A lot in our world.

Frankly, overwhelm is the most understandable reaction possible.

Silence.

Pausing.

Not knowing.

Part 4: Unknown

There are many ways to ask the same question. Accusatory, inquisitive, existential, silently.

And there is an inherent unknown in life. Even as we grow, this uncertainty does not dispel.

Sometimes people respond to this uncertainty with anger, with shame, with avoidance.

We might also respond to this uncertainty with compassion, acceptance, and love.

Part 5: A different four children

Yesterday, four children were abducted by ICE in Minnesota. Four children who deserve safety. Four children with their own questions.

Their own questions silenced by someone else’s cruelty. Someone else’s fear.

How strange to fear a child. But in truth, children represent the unknown. The questions baked into life.

Part 6: Zohar

I found a beautiful passage from the Zohar, the central mystical Jewish text, that I want to share with you all. It goes like this:

“Once a person has searched and inquired in order to understand and climb from one level to another, and has finally reached the end level of all, she is asked… What have you learned? What have you seen? What have you attended to, since everything is still concealed and hidden as before?”

This is to say, even when one reaches spiritual enlightenment, she is reminded that everything remains mysterious.

Part 7: Closing

From birth to death, we are all children before God.

Luckily, I sense that God doesn’t mind how we ask our questions. It’s okay if we feel angry or scared or curious or generous. It’s all welcome.

But, we might have to accept that God has questions for us as well.

What have you learned? What have you seen? What have you attended to?