“And you shall tell your son... in this merit Hashem did for me when I exited Egypt”. The Passover Hagadah uses this verse in a confrontational way to rattle the “wicked” son. Why does it use the same verse for the son "who doesn't know how to ask”?
At the burning bush Moses says to himself: “"Let me turn and see... why does the bush not burn?”. Why are Moshe's thoughts important? The response - "Hashem saw that he had turned to see, and God called to him from within the bush, and said, Moses, Moses" – suggests that if Moses hadn't inquired he wouldn't become the great liberator. The revelation emanates from the source of questioning itself.
This is because the ability to question ones reality in comparison to the world is the ability to become free; to challenge the binds that confine/enslave our bodies, personalities and minds.
Abraham, Moses, King Solomon and Job are among the many in Tanach who questioned and challenged. We also find it at the foundation of our oral tradition: “what is the reason?”, “where is this from?”, etc...
It isn't just intellectual curiosity. It goes to the character of a person - and a nation - one who accepts reality and is therefore confined by it vs. one who challenges his internal and external reality, thus developing, growing, becoming increasingly freer.
He who “doesn't know how to ask” is the lowest on the totem pole of freedom in the Hagadah. And in life. (250)
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