When I think of the word “sons,” coming off of Pesach, I think first of the four sons in the Haggadah – and naturally, of my own four sons.
The Haggadah teaches that each child is unique: the wise, the rebellious, the simple, and the one who does not know how to ask. Each requires a distinct response. The same is true beyond the Seder table.
I once heard a story: A father lamented to his rabbi, “I raised all my children the same way, yet one grew into righteousness while another struggles.” The rabbi replied, “Perhaps that was the mistake – you raised them all the same way.”
Loving our children equally does not mean treating them identically. Each soul carries its own nature, its own calling. To raise them well is to know them deeply – to nurture their individual strengths and guide them along their unique paths.
As parents, we share a common hope: to see our children flourish – not in sameness, but in the fulfillment of their own potential. And so I pray, as we say in Hallel, to be an eim habanim semeicha – a joyful mother of children, finding true happiness not simply in having children, but in seeing each one illuminate the world with their distinct, divine light.
