Four Sons Saved by Elijah

In theory we should engage

with four sons, whom I list below,

including, at the top, the sage,

at bottom he who doesn’t know

how questions should be asked, and in

the middle the outsider who

considers rituals a sin,

and he who’s simple, but heart true.

We teach Passover laws to those

who’re wise, and welcome to our table

the wicked sons who are our foes,

but do not make our lives unstable.

Though sons who’re simple fail in schools

to learn the facts of Jewish life,

we must not let them think they’re fools,

but tell them of God’s strength. Our wife

is suited best to teach our son

who does not yet know how to ask,

while we provide for him some fun,

with afikoman search his task.

The spice of life, variety,

is what on Passover we choose

to celebrate; society

does not allow us to refuse

a welcome to a left-out one,

so even those who have the label

of wicked we refuse to shun,

with wine and matzoh on our table,

and having poured non-PC wrath

on fatal foes, pour for Elijah

a glass on wine-stained tablecloth

for this great guest noblesse obliger

to drink, performing what we’re told

by Malachi he’ll do, join Jews

to one another, young and old,

divided no more by vile views.

Elijah: antidote of awesome

destruction on a doom-date day

for Jews, when for the seder’s foursome

he’ll Malachi’s last words unsay.

In the conclusion of the book of Malachi, Malachi 3:23-24 predicts that Elijah will come before an ‘awesome, fearful day’. He follows this with a comment that Elijah will nevertheless, just in time, unite and reconcile the generations, whose inter-enmity has presumably helped to bring about the dire situation, but he concludes his prophesy by repeating his warning, this time, however, tempered happily by his promise of reconciliation.  This construct is imitated at the seder, when we too end on a happy note.

Malachi 3:23-24 states:

הִנֵּ֤ה אָנֹכִי֙ שֹׁלֵ֣חַ לָכֶ֔ם אֵ֖ת אֵלִיָּ֣ה הַנָּבִ֑יא לִפְנֵ֗י בּ֚וֹא י֣וֹם יְהֹוָ֔ה הַגָּד֖וֹל וְהַנּוֹרָֽא׃

Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of GOD. 

וְהֵשִׁ֤יב לֵב־אָבוֹת֙ עַל־בָּנִ֔ים וְלֵ֥ב בָּנִ֖ים עַל־אֲבוֹתָ֑ם פֶּן־אָב֕וֹא וְהִכֵּיתִ֥י אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ חֵֽרֶם׃

He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents, lest, when I come, I  strike the whole land with utter destruction.

הִנֵּ֤ה אָנֹכִי֙ שֹׁלֵ֣חַ לָכֶ֔ם אֵ֖ת אֵלִיָּ֣ה הַנָּבִ֑יא לִפְנֵ֗י בּ֚וֹא י֣וֹם יְהֹוָ֔ה הַגָּד֖וֹל וְהַנּוֹרָֽא׃

Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of GOD.