Telling the Child the Story and Answering the Wicked Son

(Exodus 13:8) "And you shall tell your child on that day." I might think from the New Moon; Scripture teaches "on that day." I might think while it is still day; Scripture teaches "because of this" - at the time when matzah and bitter herb are set before you on the table. "Because of this the LORD did for me": why is it stated? Because it says, "What is this service to you?" - this is the wicked son who has removed himself from the community. Just as he has removed himself from the community, so you remove him: say to him, "Because of this the LORD did for me" - for me and not for him; had he been there he would not have been redeemed. In every generation a person is obligated to see himself as though he himself went out of Egypt, as it is said, "And you shall tell your child on that day, saying: Because of this the LORD did for me when I went out of Egypt." Rav Aha bar Yaakov said: A blind person is exempt from reciting the Haggadah. It is written here "because of this" and it is written elsewhere (Deuteronomy 21:20), "this son of ours"; just as there it excludes the blind, so here it excludes the blind. But Rav Sheshet and Rav Yosef hold he is obligated. There it is sound, since Scripture could have written "this son of ours is" and instead wrote "this," excluding the blind; but here "because of this" means "on account of the matzah and bitter herb that have come" before you.