[Avodah] The youngest child (was: Does "ben" mean "son" or "child"?)

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 11:11:05PM -0500, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: The bottom line is that the classic seforim all write it just as RMB
: quoted: "vekan haben sho'eil" - THE ben, as if there is only one ben
: at the table. Does anyone know of any authorities who say what to do
: when there is more than one?

All but one. To use an idiom of the AhS, "velahaRambam z"l yeish lo
dei'ah achares".... (Although it isn't really an idiom, because he uses
several different paraphrases: "yeish lehaRambam", "lehaRambam sham",
"delehaRambam hayah lo bazeh", "da'as acheres", "shitah acheresh"...
My personal favorite YT 183:39, "Vezehu lefi kol rabozeinu, aval
lehaRambam tzarikh lomar kavanah acheres". The AhS clearly noticed
how often the Rambam is a da'as yachid. Which to my mind reflects the
Rambam's unique approach to what machloqes and pesaq are, so I'll
ping R Zvi Lampel....)

Anyway, in our case, the unique shitah of the Rambam (Chameitz uMatzah
8:2), "... ve'omar haqorei, 'Mah nistanah....'" And is only required when
someone in the audience doesn't spontaneously ask real questions (7:3),
with dinim derabbanan at the seder just to get those real questions going.

The mishnah 10:4 has "vekhan haben sho'el aviv, and if the ben lacks
da'as, his father teaches him, 'mah nishtanah...'" (With different
girsa'os in the Bavli and the Y-mi.)

According to the Bartenura, the correct girsa as found "bekhol hasefarim"
is "vekhein haben sho'el" (minus an alef), and the "vekhein" is like
"kein benos Tzelofchad dovros".

So that's the source of "vekan haben sho'el". Rov rishonim say that the
child asks "Mah Nishtanah" and if he has no da'as, the father teaches
him to say "Mah Nishtanah". Whereas the Rambam understands the mishnah
as saying that the child should ask questions, and if there is a da'as
shortage, then the father teaches the child starting with the words
"Mah nishatanah" -- I guess instead of starting by addressing the
child's questions.

Anyway, on to the main question.... Having the youngest ask does seem
to be a minhag that arose in comparatively recent times, given that I
also failed to find a maqor.

However, if makes sense from the sevara I assumed (above) motivates rov
rishonim. It is the father's job to teach Mah Nishtanah to the kid who
can't come up with his own questions. It is a natural implication to
assume that the child who has been at the fewest sedarim who would need
this coaching.

The minhag seems pretty directly supported by the Yerushalmi (vilna
edition 70a). R Yosah identifies the "im ein da'as beven aviv melemdo"
in the mishnah with the "at petach lo" of the she'eino yodei'a lish'ol.
So it would be logical for minhag to concludes that Mah Nishtana goes
to the child closest to she'eino yodei'a lish'ol.

(In my house it goes youngest to oldest, every descendent who is willing
to. Sometimes we have choirs, sometimes strange languages or Dr Seuss,
but it is a long production. But that has more to do with not wanting
to grow up than anything halachic or minhag.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "The worst thing that can happen to a
micha at aishdas.org        person is to remain asleep and untamed."
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