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In countless Jewish homes this Passover night, when the family
gathers round the seder table, a child will ask the “Four
Questions.” Mah nishtanah halailah hazeh mikol haleilot
- Why is this night different from all other nights? Why
matzah instead of bread? Why do we eat bitter herbs? Why do
we recline as we eat the matzah and drink the four cups of
wine? Why dip twice this evening, dunking a bit of vegetable
in salt-water and the bitter herbs in charoset (a paste
of apples, nuts and wine)?
We wanted him or her to ask. In conducting the seder, we
did everything possible to stimulate the child’s curiosity.
Now we will tell him about our forefathers’ exodus from
Egypt and our birth as a nation. We will explain how each
of these observances represents various aspects of slavery,
freedom, redemption and the faith of Israel.
Last Things First
The same four questions appear in every Passover Haggadah.
But there are different customs regarding the order
in which the questions are posed. In the Haggadah compiled
by the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman
of Liadi, the order is as follows: a) the dipping; b) matzah;
c) bitter herbs; d) reclining.
If we rate these four observances by order of their importance
according to Jewish law (Halachah) we find that, while
everything else seems to fall in place, the first question—regarding
the “dipping”—should have come at the very
end. The eating of matzah is mandated by the Torah and carries
the full legal weight of a “biblical commandment”
(mitzvah mideoraita). Not so the bitter herbs: though
also mentioned in the Torah, it is supposed to be eaten together
with the Passover lamb; since today—when we are still
deprived of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem—our seder lacks
the meat of the Passover offering, the eating of the bitter
herbs is only a “rabbinical commandment” (mitzvah
miderabanan), enacted by our sages in commemoration of
the bitter herbs eaten in Temple times. A notch lower on the
halachic scale is the practice of reclining on the
seder night. This way of expressing the freedom and serenity
achieved by the Exodus is a purely rabbinical institution,
with no biblical origins at all.
Thus, the order of questions 2, 3 and 4 in Rabbi Schneur
Zalman’s Haggadah is consistent with the order of their
halachic prominence. The first question, however, seems
entirely out of place—by rights, it should have been
last on the list. The other three, whether from the Torah
or the Rabbis, are all halachic obligations, while
the practice of dipping at the seder is only a minhag,
a “custom.” So why is this question given the place
of honor at the head of the Four Questions?
But the child knows nothing of halachic levels of
import, or of the distinction between biblical and rabbinical
mitzvot. What he does know, sense, and absorb to the very
core of his being is the holiness, the beauty and the joy
of the Jewish home. And it is the Jewish minhag, the
distinctive Jewish way of life, which captures the essence
of our Jewishness - an essence which cannot be defined by
legal formulas, no matter how crucial or lofty. This is what
most captures the child’s attention at the seder table.
This is what leaves the most powerful and enduring impression
in his mind and heart.
A home may be impeccably Jewish, the laws of the Torah may
be meticulously fulfilled, but if the Jewish customs are scorned,
one is building a technical shell while neglecting the underlying
foundation. Look at what your child asks about first, observe
what most strikes his curiosity and lingers longest in his
memory, and you will learn what it is that molds a child into
a Jewish child.
Based on an address by the Rebbe, Passover 5716 (1956)[1]
Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe by Yanki Tauber
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[1]. Likkutei Sichot, vol. I, pp. 244-246.
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