The Transmission – An Awesome Responsibilty

Rav Shlomo Ganzfried, who wrote the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, observes that the Torah’s command requires us to relate it "to our children and our children’s children." If every father has a responsibility to his child, then the children will relate it to their children. Why the necessity to involve the grandfather? He answers that the responsibility to relate the story of the exodus from Egypt to one’s children is to do so with such intensity and feeling that the child will be able and willing to relate it directly to his children. The grandfather is not enjoined to relate it directly to his grandchild, but rather he is enjoined to educate his child in a way that the child will similarly educate his children.

This also explains why the Torah says, "You should tell it into the ears of your children" (Shemos 10:2). It has to enter their ears specifically; it has to be tailor-made to be able to impress them emotionally and intellectually.

The entire Pesach seder is predicated on this filial responsibility to pass over the experience from generation to coming generation. The Ritva explains that the Torah’s presentation of the four sons demonstrates the fact that the purpose of retelling the account of the Exodus is not merely to tell what happened, but rather to impress the child with the foundations of belief. The father must tell it to his child in a manner that will communicate these truths and relate to the individual personality of each child. It should affect him personally, tailor-made to his intellect and his emotional personality.
(Rabbi Zev Leff)