Menachem Bluming Muses: The Simple Son at the Seder

About 250 years a man on his way back home from his travels in Russia was delayed by a huge snowstorm and forced to search the town for someone who would host him for the first days of Passover and the Passover Seders.

He was fortunate to find a simple home with simple sweet people who were willing to have him gladly.

At the Seder he began to feel very alone and depressed. He was actually a learned scholar used to expounding on the deeper meanings of the Passover Hagaddah for many hours and here he was at the table of a very simple family who did not seem to appreciate anything beyond the very simple.

In fact the leader of the Seder became very carried away and emotional as he spoke of the simple son, exclaiming in a loud voice Tam Mah Hu Omer. He would repeat that line over and over again: the simple son what does he ask? The scholar could not prevent himself from chuckling inside realizing that this man must feel that he is best expressed in the question of the most simple.

After the holiday he returned to the study hall of his spiritual master and he reported back about this very strange Passover Seder occurrence.

His spiritual guide and teacher knew of this man... He was actually a truly devoted sincere Jew... He was not ‘simple’ at all. In Russian the word Tam means THERE. He was exclaiming to everyone at his Seder, “we might think that we are very accomplished but TAM in heaven how are we seen?” We were brought here for a mission, are we accomplishing that mission?

When you work for someone there are two parts of the work, one is the actual work and the other is if the boss is pleased with your work. The second aspect is no less important than the first because you are working for someone; they have hired you and they pay you.

This sincere Jew was exclaiming at his Seder that despite all that we all accomplish the central question that we need to ask ourselves is am I meeting the mission for which I was brought here.

TAM there in Heaven, what does He think of my life... Now, that is far from simple thinking...

Mendel (Menachem) Bluming

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