[Avodah] The Yeshivas and the Seder

[Yitzchok Levine]

For many years I have felt that the yeshivas "spoil" the seder. From 
the gemara it seems to me that younger children are not supposed to 
know very much about what to expect at the Seder. However, today they 
come home "armed" with thick booklets, ready to say the Torah of 
their teachers.  They not only know what will happen, but, if allowed 
to say all that they have in their booklets, there would be no time 
for anything else.  Now this may have been the way to go when many 
parents had very limited Jewish educations, but it does not seem 
appropriate for children who come from homes where the parents are 
well educated Jewishly.

I found support for my position in this week's Hamodia Magazine which 
features a very well written and interesting article about Rav Yaakov 
Kamenetsky, ZT"L. In the article the author writes

Rav Yaakov had a novel, focused
approach to the mitzvah of v'higadeta
l'vincha, recounting the story of the Exodus
from Egypt to one's children on Pesach
night. We are all familiar with the bulging
notebooks and binders that children bring
to the Pesach table, hours' worth of divrei
Torah all seemingly set to music with
refrains. Rav Yaakov was against this
practice. He held that boys should not be
prepared in advance in any significant way
for the Seder.

"There are two mitzvos aseh, affirmative
commandments, on Pesach. One is to eat
matzah, and the other is v'higadeta l'vincha.
If the child takes over the table, the father
loses the mitzvah of sippur Yetzias
Mitzrayim!"

Dare one suggest that it is time for the yeshivas to stop preparing 
their talmidim for the seder and follow Reb Yaakov's approach?

Yitzchok Levine 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20100314/6734f269/attachment-0001.htm>