R. Marc Angle, in Jewish Ideals for Friday, April 4 2014 notes, almost in passing, that Famously, the Hagadah includes instructions on dealing with children with different aptitudes and interests. The challenge is to feel and transmit the vast group Exodus experience of antiquity on an individual level.
As a former newspaper reporter and editor, and later as a technical writer, I know, possibly better than most, that it is the obligation of the person presenting information to make it understandable to the person receiving the information.
It is not the obligation of the reader/listener to "interrupt" what was written/said.
Not all of us are comfortable with the Hagadah's Hebrew with bits of Aramaic to add flavor (or a gnashing of the teeth), so we depend on translations into a language most of us understand. But maybe not.
For a brief look at the Hagadah's linguistic history read Why is the Hagadah written in Hebrew?
Certainly some of the translations are "over the heads" of some of the younger participants at the seder. (Unfortunately, given the level of English comprehension in the U.S., the words may be beyond the capabilities of some "educated" adults as well as the children.)
The Hagadah's raison d'etre is to retell the story of our exodus from Egypt. Note I wrote, most deliberately, our exodus. The Hagadah tells us early on that עבדים היינו במצרים Slaves we were in Egypt. Every good story teller knows if the audience fails to comprehend the story's meaning, the audience's time has been wasted and the story teller's effort was simply wasted energy.
Rather than racing through the Hagadah as most of us do, maybe it would be wise to set some rules for the reading before we ask ?מה משתנה. Maybe set some time for questions and comments at certain points in the evening. Alternatively, the host might prepare some age-appropriate questions.
Back to R. Angel's article.
It begins with R. Angel quoting from Nobel Prize winning Sephardic author, Elias Canetti's book "Crowds and Power." Canetti wrote of the tremendous diversity among Jews. He theorizes: “One is driven to ask in what respect these people remain Jews; what makes them into Jews; what is the ultimate nature of the bond they feel when they say "I am a Jew"....This bond...is the Exodus from Egypt.” Canetti suggests that the Israelites’ formative experience as a vast crowd leaving Egypt is the key to understanding the nature of Jewish peoplehood. As long as Jews—however different they are from each other—share historical memories of the Exodus from Egypt, they continue to identify as members of one people. We are bound together by the shared experience of redemption.
While agreeing with Canetti, R. Angel notes that Yet, the Hagadah does not focus only on the “vast crowd” experience, but conscientiously strives to personalize the story to the level of each individual. “In every generation one must see him/herself as though he/she personally had come forth from Egypt.” The Hagadah tells stories about particular lessons taught by individual rabbis. It teaches that we have not fulfilled our obligation unless each of us speaks of Pessah, Matsah and Maror.
At the seder table we may be a "large crowd" but we still are individually obliged - men and women alike - to recall why we were redeemed both individually and collectively.
By the way, why is the Hallel split up into two sections during the seder?
In his commentary Zevach Pesach on the Hagadah, the great Spanish scholar Don Isaac Abarbanel (1437–1508) answers this question. To read Hakham Abarbanel's answer visit Why do we divide the Hallel into two at the Passover Seder?
