When it comes to the Seder night, the most memorable highlights for many families is the moment when the youngest present stands on the chair (optional!) and recites the Mah Nishtanah – the four questions. So integral to reliving the Pesach experience are questions, that even if there are no children present, the questions still have to be asked.
The Torah stresses to us three times that in future generations our children will ask about the practices that we do – in the Hagadah these are the four sons, all who come to ask questions. Even the son who does not know how to ask we prompt him to ask. As you skim through the Hagadah you will notice many instructions such as, “uncover the matzah now” or “remove the matzah from the table”. Many of these actions are for one purpose only – to make those present ask WHY?
Furthermore, one of our daily Mitzvot is to remember the Exodus from Egypt – we declare this twice daily in the last paragraph of the Shema. How then does Pesach differ from the daily Mitzvah? One of the answers given is that we are required to relate the Exodus story by way of questions and answers.
Yet again questions are asked in the finale of the Seder; in the penultimate piece we sing the song “Who knows one? …. two? …. three?”
Why is it that there is a stress on promoting questions on the Seder night?
The late R’ Noach Weinberg [founder of Aish Hatorah] explains how very central questions are to Judaism. He recalls the scene of a young cheder boy bouncing home from cheder with some sweets in his hand. The sweets were given to him for asking a great question on the verse they were studying in cheder. Shortly after arriving home the phone rings and the school Rebbe is phoning to give the parents some nachas by telling the parents about the great question that their son asked in school. The proud parents then proceed to mention to anybody and everybody who comes through their doors about their son’s question.
For years, observed R’ Noach, this was the way of Jewish parents; to cherish their children’s first questions on the bible – even more than the first shoes he wore or the first lock of hair they cut off!
What a crazy religion! Queried R’ Noach, we are excited about bible criticism! The entire Talmud is full of questions on the bible. ‘What does this mean?’ ‘Why the double expression?’ ‘Why the repeated laws with slight changes in two places?’ And so on and so forth.
Yet look what happens to the young cheder boy! All the hype around his question encourages him to ask more, and more, and more. He bombards his teachers and parents with questions about everything around him. Why is the sky blue? Why is a cat called a cat? He tries and tries until he hits another great question!
Questions are something that we encourage in Judaism. The place where we study is called the Beis Hamedresh – which can be translated as the House of seeking (See Genesis 25:22). It’s a place where we seek G-d, seek a life of meaning. We search by way of asking questions, by being bible critics – to explain every nuance in the Divine Torah; no stone should be left unturned in our quest to find the truth. In the words of the great mind of Charles Steinmetz, “No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions”.
Pesach is when we became a nation; it was also the prelude to the Revelation at Mount Sinai. So fundamental is the Pesach story that specifically on Pesach we stress the importance of asking questions. While we go though the Pesach motions this year, let’s utilise the opportunity to delve into our Judaism, into our rich heritage; so stand on that chair and ask those questions, because without questions there are no answers!
Good Shabbos! Chag Sameach!
Yaakov