The Four Sons

The Passover ritual considers how four sons—known as the smart, the simple, the wicked, and the one who doesn’t know how to ask—might ask a question to prompt the telling of the Exodus story. The leader is then expected to tell the story in a way that would speak to all four sons. This 1934 illustration for a Passover Haggadah clearly reflects on the meaning of telling the Passover story shortly after Hitler’s rise to power. Note the depiction of the “wicked” son as emulating Hitler’s appearance in the upper left corner. The wise son appears in the upper right corner, with the simple son on the bottom right and the son who does not know how to ask on the bottom left.