How Did He Know? | Parshas Re’eh

Did the Rambam really say that a person is obligated to make his grandchildren happy on Yom Tov?

There’s just one problem: the Torah never says that.

Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky noticed the difficulty and made a remarkable suggestion about what the Rambam had originally written. Years later, when authoritative manuscripts of the Rambam were examined, Rav Yaakov’s intuition was dramatically confirmed.

But solving that mystery leads to another one.

Why does the Rambam list a person’s children before his wife when describing the mitzvah of simchas Yom Tov?

A fascinating textual mystery—and perhaps a beautiful insight into how joy spreads through a Jewish home.