[Avodah] Does "ben" mean "son" or "child"?

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 09:24:34PM -0500, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: Who asks Mah Nishtana at the Seder?

Chinukh #21 says that sippur yetzi'as Mitzrayim is obligatory on men
and women equally.

The Minchas Chinukh questions this, since it's a mitzvas asei shehazman
gerama and not on the list of MAshZ"G the Rambam has (Hil' AZ 12:3)
that women are mechuyavos in. The MC concludes the chiyuv on women
is derabbanan.

The Rama (OC 473:6) says the the Ri meiLondri would do Maggid in laaz
so that women and children understand. And pasqens accordingly. (And
you thought that it was more frum to read the haggadah in Hebrew..)

The MB (s"q 64) says that the women must understand because they are
mechuyavos in the mitzvos of the night and the telling of the haggadah.
Which seems to imply deOraisa, since the CC lumps the chiyuv of sippur
with the other mitzvos of the night, like akhilas matzah. The MB's source
is a nir'eh li from 472:14, where the SA says "nashim chayavos in 4 kosos
and all the mitzvos of the night" (naming a derabbanan) and the MB ad loc
(s"q 44) says "she'af hein hayu be'oso haneis" an explanation originally
given for the deOraisos of the evening.

My point being.... If the mitzvah is not male-specific, why would we think
that "vekan haben sho'eil" means son and not daughter. In fact, if you
have two little ones, and the younger is a daughter, it seems to me that:
The MC would have the son ask Mah Nishtanah, since the girl's chinukh
is for a derabbanan. Whereas the MB would have the daughter ask since
her future chiyuv is equal to his.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
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