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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/25816/full/25816/the-simple-son-asks-his-questions-from-the-heart/ <br /><br /> <b>The ‘simple son’ asks his questions from the heart</b> <br /> Thursday, April 28, 2005 | by <p>rabbi stephen s. pearce </p> <br /><br /><p><br /><br /><br /> <b><p>Shir Hashrim<br />Exodus 13:17-15:26<br />Numbers 28:19-25<br />II Samuel 22:1-51</b></p><p><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /> Of the Haggadah’s four sons — the wise, the wicked, the simple and the one who does not know how to ask — consider the <i>tam</i> (the so-called simple son), who is portrayed as a guileless, immature, inexperienced child without much, if any, intellectual capacity.<br /><br /><br /> His naive, innocent question — <i>Mah zot</i> (What is this?) — casts him as a simpleton who is led to an uncomplicated answer appropriate to his unsophisticated level of understanding. However, this portrayal is inaccurate because in all other texts <i>temimut </i>(the state of being a tam) is defined as purity and truth, being genuine, unblemished and blameless (Proverbs 10:29) and having integrity (Job 4:6).<br /><br /><br /> Deuteronomy 18:13 best describes this more expansive and accurate meaning: <i>Tamim tiheyu im Adonai Elohecha</i> (You shall be wholehearted with the Lord your God).<br /><br /><br /> Noah was called an <i>ish tamim</i> — “a wholehearted righteous person in his generation” (Genesis 6:9). Abraham was commanded by God to “walk in My ways — <i>vehyeh tamim</i> — and be blameless” (Genesis 17:1). Jacob was described as an <i>ish tam</i> — “a gentle or mild-mannered man” (Genesis 25:27). In two places, God describes Job as a <i>tam v’yahshar</i> — “a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8; 2:3).<br /><br /><br /> The theme of temimut also resonates throughout sacred Jewish literature. Rabaynu Tam, grandson of medieval commentator Rashi, was considered to be the greatest of the Baaley Tosephot, skilled commentators whose insights form the core of talmudic study. As his name suggests, he was a man of integrity and wholeness and certainly not a simpleton. Centuries later, Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav claimed that he spent all of his life trying to achieve temimut — purity, integrity, undivided faithfulness and wholeheartedness. Medieval commentator Bahya ibn Pakuda, the author of “Hovot HaLevavot” (“The Duties of the Heart”) further explained the temimut:<br /><br /><br /> You should know that the   precepts of the heart imply a complete harmony between our inner and outward actions regarding the service of the Lord when the heart and tongue and other limbs are at one with each other, each justifying and bearing witness in favor of the other, neither contradicting nor belying the other. This is what the Holy Writ (in Psalms) refers to in the term “wholehearted,” when it admonishes us to be “wholehearted with the Lord your God,” and commends “he that walks uprightly — <i>holech tamim</i> — works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart” (Psalms 15:2).<br /><br /><br /> The Seer of Lublin once asked: “Should a person strive for greatness or wholeness?” He explained his answer by pointing out that if you have two loaves of bread, one large but sliced and one small but whole, it is customary to bless the whole one. Thus, he concludes that wholeness is more valuable than greatness. By extension, Rabbi Yitzhak Elchanan of Kovno cited the familiar verse from Psalms (19:8), <i>Torat Adonai temimah</i> — the Torah of God is whole or complete — to explain that a Torah missing even one letter is <i>pasul</i> (flawed) and cannot be used because the missing letter destroys temimut.<br /><br /><br /> So important was tamim that the Jewish law, in dealing with the number of witnesses necessary in a court proceeding, requires that no matter how many witnesses are called, disqualification of one witness disqualifies all of the witnesses and destroys the integrity and wholeness of the entire proceeding.<br /><br /><br /> Finding temimut — wholeness, in ourselves and in a broken world in need of tikkun — fixing, is the challenge of Passover. In addition to the many cited sources, the understanding of tam, the term utilized for the Haggadah’s simple child and the variety of the related words — tamim, temimah, tmeemim and temimut — is best captured by the opening line of Psalm 119: Ashray tmeemai darech, haholchim b’toch Adonai (Happy are the upright who walk in the ways of the Eternal).<br /><br /><br /> Learning about the true nature of the simple child should serve as a reminder of the noblest conduct by which to live our lives as we celebrate the intermediary days of Passover.<br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /> <b>Stephen S. Pearce</b> is senior rabbi at the Reform Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco.</p> <p> </p>

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