Praised is the Omnipresent, Praised is He! Abudraham explains that it was the method of those who explicated words of Torahto introduce them in this manner. Later the Haggadah presents the story of Terach’s idolatry and how the people came to worship one God. This is according to Rav’s explanation of the principle that ‘we begin with shame and end with praise.’ This introduction, then, sets the stage for the explanation we are about to begin. The purpose of this extended passage is to explain how Israel ‘came close to God.’ Expressing the same theme, the passage then ends with Dayenu and ‘God has bestowed many favors upon us.’⁸⁴ 116a Through the Exodus God showed Israel how His providence and His power fill the world, and that God is the ‘place of the world’ but that the world is not God’s place. Through this story we learn the fundamental theological truths of Judaism – so we begin by saying “Blessed is the Place of the World, blessed is God,” and, “Blessed is the one who gave the Torah to the people of Israel.” Even though God is all places, God is still hidden – this is expressed through the words, “Blessed is God.”⁸⁵is literally, ‘Blessed is He.’ The word hu, he is a third person pronoun suggesting distance and transcendence. God is both hidden and beyond human comprehension – a transcendent God. We can only comprehend God through God’s actions; through them we can come to the realization that God is creator. At the moment of revelation, however, God revealed Himself as an elder sitting in the academy – in response to this moment we say, “Blessed is the one who gave Torah to His people.” Through that moment we can comprehend a bit of God’s essence. Then we say again, “Blessed is He/God,” since, even in the moment of revelation, God’s true essence is hidden from us. According to Kabbalistic interpretation, God is called makom, Place, because the gematria of the word makomis 196 like the word pakuwhich means ‘go out.’ God caused Israel to go out from impurity and from Egypt.

footnotes: ⁸⁴ BT Pesachim ⁸⁵ The word Baruch hu

The Torah speaks of four types of children: Why does the Haggadah use the word “one” four times in this passage? It could have said that, “The Torah speaks of four types of children: wise, wicked, simple and could not ask.”⁸⁶ says “One is wise, one is wicked, etc… The use of the word, ‘one’ in this passage is a reference to the different ways in which the four children comprehend the ONENESS of God. Bachya Ibn Pakudah (Chovot Halevavot),⁸⁷, Book of Direction to the Duties of the Heart, sometimes titled as Guide to the Duties of the Heart, and translated into Hebrew by Judah ibn Tibbon in the years 1161-80 under the title Chovot ha-Levavot. Maimonides and others suggest that those who have the capacity of comprehending the oneness of God should engage in such analysis. This is accomplished through rational analysis; to arrive at belief without such analysis is not appropriate. A parable explains this. If a series of blind people try to follow one another with a seeing person leading them; if the sighted person falls into a pit, then all the others will fall in with him. Each person must arrive at his own concept of God but not all concepts of God are the same. Not everyone is capable of such study and the ability to comprehend the unity of God is different for each student. According to a person’s knowledge and intellect he will arrive at different levels of understanding of God. Therefore, in this passage, when we say “the ‘ONE’ of the wise child, the ‘ONE’ of the wicked child, the ‘ONE’ of the simple child and the ‘ONE’ of the child who doesn’t know how to ask,” we are speaking about their different perceptions of God. A child is not yet ready to delve into this analysis so he is better off accepting belief in God based on tradition. For the wise, “One” means incomparable and indivisible, while for the simple child, ‘One’ is quantitative (God is one and not two). The ‘One’ that the wise child comprehends is the true oneness of God in the sense that the philosophers spoke of it. For the wicked, God is not one in the sense of singular; “One” is a product of many joining together– such a person is guilty of heresy⁸⁸. In the way of Kabbalah, the child “who doesn’t know how to ask” is one who realizes that one cannot truly comprehend the absolute oneness of God. True comprehension of God’s oneness is only possible through the instrument of Torah and through the extent of a person’s intellect.

footnotes: ⁸⁶ Instead the Haggadah ⁸⁷ Chovot ha-Levavot is the primary work of Bachya ibn Paquda, a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who seemingly lived at Saragossa, Spain, in the first half of the eleventh century. It was written in Judeo-Arabic in approximately 1040 under the title Kitab al-Hidāya ilā Fara'id al-Qulūb ⁸⁸ This may be a reference to the belief in the trinity in Christianity.