The Four Children of the seder, the Haggadah beside its older witness -- and the answers do not line up
Every seder reads the Four Children: the wise, the wicked, the simple, and the one who does not know to ask. The text feels fixed. But set the Haggadah beside the Jerusalem Talmud (its older witness) and two things jump out: the Yerushalmi calls the third child not tam ("simple") but tipesh ("foolish"), and -- more striking -- the answers given to the wise and the simple child are swapped. The afikoman teaching the Haggadah gives the wise child, the Yerushalmi gives the foolish one; "with a strong hand," which the Haggadah gives the simple child, the Yerushalmi gives the wise one. And the wise child's own question reads "us" in the Yerushalmi where the Haggadah reads the harder "you."
Haggadah (the text we read)
Yerushalmi Pesachim 10:4 (Venice 1523)
Wise חָכָם
Asks: "the testimonies, statutes, and laws the LORD our God commanded you" (אֶתְכֶם) Told: the laws of Pesach -- "one does not conclude after the pesach with afikoman"
Asks: "...the LORD our God commanded us" (אוֹתָנוּ) Told: "With a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt" (Exod 13:14)
Wicked רָשָׁע
Asks: "what is this service to you" -- excluding himself Told: blunt his teeth; "because of this the LORD did for me" (Exod 13:8) -- not for him
Asks: "what is this service to you -- this trouble you burden us with" Told: "because of this the LORD did for me" -- for me, not that man (Exod 13:8)
Simple / Foolish תָּם / טִיפֵּשׁ
Name:tam ("simple") · Asks: "what is this?" Told: "With a strong hand the LORD brought us out" (Exod 13:14)
Name:tipesh ("foolish") · Asks: "what is this?" Told: the laws of Pesach -- "one does not conclude after the pesach with afikoman"
Does not know to ask שֶׁאֵינוֹ יוֹדֵעַ
Told: you open for him -- "you shall tell your child on that day..." (Exod 13:8)
Told: you open for him first; if the child has no understanding, the parent teaches him
For discussion
The Haggadah hands the wise child the subtlest answer (the laws of the afikoman); the Yerushalmi hands that same answer to the foolish child. What does each editor think the wise child most needs to hear?
The Yerushalmi calls the third child tipesh ("foolish"); the Haggadah softens him to tam ("simple," even "wholesome"). Is that a kindness, a theology, or both?
The wise child asks about what God commanded "you" (Haggadah) or "us" (Yerushalmi). The wicked child is faulted precisely for saying "you" and excluding himself -- so why does the Haggadah let the wise child say "you" too?
If the answers can be reassigned, is the lesson in which verse a child receives -- or in the parent's reading of which child is in front of them?