What Makes This Night Unlike All Other Nights?

Haggadah Section: -- Four Questions

The Torah speaks of children asking questions on Pesach. From this, tradition inferred that the story of the exodus from Egypt must be told, wherever possible, in response to the questions asked by a child.

The Torah has two words for inheritance,  yerushah  and nachalah, and they represent the two different ways in which a heritage is passed on across the generations. The word  nachalah  comes from the root  nachal, which also means "river." It represents an inheritance that is merely handed down without any work on the part of the recipient, as water flows in a river. Yerushah, by contrast, means active inheritance. Rabbi Samsom Rafael Hirsch pointed out that  lareshet, the verbal form of  yerushah, sometimes means "conquer" or "capture." It means actively taking hold of what one has been promised. An inheritance for which one has worked is always more secure than one for which one has not. That is why Judaism encourages children to ask questions. When a child asks, he or she has already begun the work of preparing to receive. Torah is a  yerushah, not a  nachalah.  It needs work on behalf of the child if it is to be passed on across the generations.

Source:  
Koren Haggadah p. 27

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