One of the best things about Pesach and the Seder, imho, is the geshmak candy fruit flavored slices served as one of the desserts at the Seder. I love them.
A couple of years ago, it occurred to me that perhaps the four flavors correlate to the four children and I mentioned this (and posted in various places) and - shockingly! - there is a machloket about which flavor goes with which child (try it at your Seder!). But one person suggested that they all tasted the same and that one could not distinguish them in a taste test.
So, last year, at one of the Sedarim I attended, we conducted just such a blindfolded taste test. A couple of people were able to correctly distinguish orange from the others - but I got all four wrong (yes, that;'s right, the process of elimination failed me!).
But . . . it now occurs to me that perhaps there is a powerful spiritual lession to be learned here - perhaps even two. First, several haggadot have attempted to reframe the four children in a less pejorative and judgmental way, suggesting that all four are needed – even the challenging one (as I’ve heard the “wicked” child named). The fact that different people differ about which flavor is “wicked” (and I’ve heard all four flavors so described!) indicate the truth of this statement – and, perhaps, the real key is when each child comes forward – there is a time for speaking uncomfortable truths (wicked) and a time to keep silent (too young to ask), a time for confident assertive lovingkindness (“good”) and a time for curiosity (“simple”).
Additionally, the fact that many can’t tell them apart teaches us that even the discernment of which child – which middah, to use Mussar language, if I may be so bold as to equate the two – is difficult and that, perhaps unlike the judgmental parent, we should embrace them all and get to know them all – both within ourselves and within others – and strive for a lot more savlanut – patience – as we live into the redemption from the narrow places G!d beckons us to receive this Pesach.
