“You shall blunt his teeth... he would not have been redeemed.” (Passover Haggada)
The wicked son says, “What is this work to YOU?” He excludes himself. In response, we are told to “blunt his teeth” by saying that this is why Hashem redeemed us from Egypt but had he been there, he would not have been redeemed. What does the expression “blunt his teeth” mean? We suggest it means our response directly contradicts his claims. What we tell him, explains where he went wrong.
We tell him that if he had been in Egypt, G-d would not have redeemed him. Why? Because Hashem redeemed the people who would become the unified nation of Klal Yisrael. By seeking to exclude himself, the wicked person shows he did not identify or consider himself one of them.
In fact, we find that when Dasan and Aviram were fighting, Moshe called the one who lifted his hand against the other a “rasha,” a wicked person. His wickedness lay in not realizing that by harming a fellow Jew he was harming himself, and that is our answer to the one the Haggada calls the “rasha,” the wicked one.
“Had you been in Egypt, Hashem would not have redeemed you.” But you’re not in Egypt and it’s not G-d doing the judging. You’re in our home now, and we will not exclude you even though you try to exclude yourself.
The “teeth” of his argument are that we are not a unified nation of Israel. We blunt those teeth by weakening his claim. We tell him, “I do what I do because this is what Hashem wants of me. Perhaps if you defied G-d in Egypt, He would have chosen to leave you behind. But that’s not our role. To me, you are a part of us. Without you, we are not complete, and you will always have a seat at the table.”
This is why we say, “Kol dichfin,” and invite anyone who needs a place to join us at the seder even though the seder is already starting and there’s little chance anyone will take us up on it. It’s not about bringing the people in, but being ready to do so. Pesach is the time to realize that we need each other, and no Jew will be left behind.
