The Rashbam learns peshat in this kashya that the Gemara would not refer to a chiyuv tibul if it referred to something done only to arouse the interest of the children.
Can you learn alternatively that since the purpose is to have the children notice something unusual, a "chiyuv" would not be something they'd notice, only an actual practice. Thus, the fact that there is a chiyuv on leil haseder to dip twice doesn't catch their eye, only something DONE that is out of the ordinary?
Gershon
gershon.dubin@juno.com
Gershon Dubin, Brooklyn, NY, USA
(Please forgive the delay in response. Technical problems prevented the mailing of a number of responses.)
Baruch she'Kivanta!
1) Your Peshat is cited in Otzar Mefarshei ha'Talmud here (page 703, and note 59) in the name of "Matza Chen." He explains that Rav Safra meant to say that children will not ask why we are obligated to do such a thing, because they do not understand that they are doing something because they are Mechuyav to do so, but rather the children look at what we actually do, not whether we have to do it.
2) Your Peshat is such a good one that it makes you wonder why the Rashbam did not say it. I would like to suggest that the Rashbam learned his Peshat from the phrase, "Chiyuva l'Dardekei," for which the literal translation is, "Is there an obligation for children?" This suggests that Rav Safra is asking how there can be a Halachic obligation concerning children. The question is not about the way the children ask the question but rather is about the Halachic issue that it may be possible to have a Chiyuv created by the presence of children. (See Ran, beginning of 23b of the pages of the Rif, for why there is not a Chiyuv due to the Mitzvah of educating the children.)
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom