THE FIFTH SON

THE FIFTH SON         אחד1 חכם  אחד2  רשע  אחד  3תם  ואחד 4 שאינו יודע לשאול  The last Lubavitcher Rebbe zt"l, said*  The sequence of the four sons goes in order from good to bad to worse. The רשע is in a better position than the תם & שאינו יודע לשאול. The רשע can turn over and become a Tzadik בשעה אחת in a very short period, whereas ignorance and  עמי הארצות which is the cause of most problems in Yiddishkeit, takes lots of time, energy & effort to change. (from ignorance to knowledge) The Rebbe said there are different levels of עמי הארצות. We have a תם  and a שאינו יודע לשאול who both attend the Seder. They at least know it's Yom Tov and the need to sit down to a Seder. There is, however, a fifth son who has absolutely no knowledge at all of of Pesach, of a Seder, or of any Mitzvohs, etc. This son is even more of an ignoramus than the שאינו יודע לשאול he doesn't even attend a Seder. Our obligation is to wipe out ignorance in Yiddishkeit. (ע"כ) Perhaps the fifth son is the מכה אשר לא כתובה בתורה for only כנגד ארבעה בנים דברה תורה. To the fifth son, we say כל דכפין ייתי וייכול. Whoever is hungry should come in to eat. All we ask him to do is to come for a meal. This is the עבודה at the Seder, to stamp out עמי הארצות. To get rid of and be מבער ignorance. כי ישאלך בנך – והגדת לבנך  The sequence in which to do this is by starting with 1) כל דכפין, inviting the ignorant to eat with us. We can then get to 2) את פתח לו which will bring us to 3) וכאן הבן שואל. By now you get to the stage of 4) אף אתה אמור לו כהלכות הפסח to become a Talmid Chacham (אמבצי) * Heard from my son  נר"ו