The Fifth Child In recent years, it has been customary to speak at the Pesach Seder of a “fifth child” in addition to the four – wise, wayward, simple and silent – which the Hagada depicts. This fifth child is usually identified as the one who isn’t there because s/he has opted out of the Jewish community and/or Jewish life. But there may be other reasons why s/he isn’t there. S/he may be unwell, incapacitated, hospitalised. Or – as I say at my seder often – s/he may be an unsung hero of our people on emergency patrol duty for the IDF or on nursing roster in the ICU ward at Sha’are Zedek or a senior Mossad agent engaged in a life-or-death operation that nobody knows about. These “fifth children” deserve our acknowledgement, our prayers, our acclaim.