Rabbi’s Message
Every child knows that the time comes when they are asked to lead the hallowed "Ma Nishtana” at the family seder. It is a rite of passage that some look forward to, some fear. Just another parental imposition which our children will discuss with their therapists later in life.
According to the Mishnah, an early rabbinic text, in the section on Pesah, the source of the Ma Nishtana, we are told: "They poured the second cup of wine, and here the child asks his father. But if the child lacks knowledge, the father teaches him "Ma Nishtana Halayla Hazeh."
What exactly is the question the child asks. The mishnah makes clear that this question comes after the second cup of wine is poured. Rashi suggests that the child would not ask the Mah Nishtana questions that we are familiar with but a logical one: why are you pouring a second cup of wine when on other holidays and Shabbat we are required to drink only one cup?
If the child, however, doesn't have the experience or background or perceptiveness to ask a question, then the father teaches him Ma Nishtana. According to the mishna, therefore, the Ma Nishtana is recited only if the child did not generate his own question arising out of his own curiosity.
The Talmud tells a story of the scholar Abaye when he was a child. At the Pesach seder, when the servants removed the seder plate little Abaye asked his teacher Rabbah: "Why did they take away the plate, we haven't eaten yet." To this, his teacher responded: By your question, you have exempted us from reciting the Mah Nishtana (the four formulaic questions).
If the child cannot or does not generate his/her own question based on perceiving things that are different at the seder compared to other festive meals, then the father teaches "Mah Nishtana" which should be translated as "How different this night is from all other nights!" and includes four things that are going to be different on that night (after all, how could the child ask about double-dipping, reclining, bitter herbs, matza if they haven't happened yet).
The Mishnah's concern is that a question be asked, preferably one the child creates on his own. Without a question, the story can't be told.
Rabbi Lee Buckman suggests that questioning is important for at least three more reasons. First, "in the brain-based economy, victory goes to the perpetually curious." Judaism is a brain-based economy. We aren't the people of the book for nothing! The seder is the model through which we can achieve excellence through reflection and meditation on big issues.
The second reason the seder emphasizes the question is to foster dialogue. Question and answer is one of the best vehicles for handing down the story of our people and for strengthening the bonds of family, intergenerational bonds, that Pharaoh tried to destroyed in Egypt.
Finally, and most important, questioning is a sign of freedom. If we are permitted to question, challenge, investigate, probe, if we are permitted to ask, inquire, and search, we are free.
The Nobel physicist Isaac Rabi was asked to what he attributes his success in the field of science. He responded: "Whenever I returned home from school as a child, my mother never asked me 'Ike, what did you learn today.' She always asked, 'Ike, did you ask a good question today.'"
What is important at our seders, therefore, is not how many questions we can answer but how many questions we can discover. Abraham Joshua Heschel once said that the role of a Jewish educator is to be the midwife to the birth of a question. We will know when the seder rituals are working when we see a generation of questions being born. So this year at your seder – ask yourselves – Did we ask good questions?
Chag Kasher V'sameach