{ "clip_details": { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "the-four-children-74", "title": "The Four Children", "author": "Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "author_handle": "jane-taubenfeld-cohen", "author_initials": "JT", "covertext": "The Four Questions page from the Arthur Szyk's 1935 Haggadah. (Wikimedia Commons) Answering the Four Children What to ma...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "\n\n\n<img src=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2003/03/szyk-haggadah.jpg\" alt=\"szyk-haggadah.jpg\" />\nThe Four Questions page from the Arthur Szyk's 1935 Haggadah. (Wikimedia Commons)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Answering the Four Children</h1>\n\nWhat to make of the wise, wicked, simple, and silent children at the seder\n\nBY <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/author/rabbi-miriam-t-spitzer/\">RABBI SPITZER</a>\n\n\n\n\nFour children came to seder . One was wise, one was wicked, one was simple, and one was silent.\n\nIt was seder night at long last. The family gathered around the table, and Zayde (Grandpa, in Yiddish) began reading the Haggadah . Suddenly one child was heard to ask in an undertone: “What is going on here, anyway?” At that point another child muttered: “Yeah, what does all this mean to you? Let’s eat already!” Another child piped up: “I know what is going on. I know what he is reading. I know everything about Pesach.” The last child didn’t say anything, but managed to look manifestly bored, as Zayde continued reading the Haggadah, oblivious to the murmuring.\n\nNo, that can’t be how it happened. I’ll try again.<img src=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/four-sons_hp1.jpg\" alt=\"four-sons_hp1.jpg\" />\n\nIt was seder night at long last. The family gathered around the table, and Zayde began reading the Haggadah. Suddenly one child interrupted: “What are all these laws and customs and practices which God has given to you? I want to know.” Zayde began to explain the intricacies of Pesach law, when there was another interruption: “You tell us all these things, but what do they really mean to you, Zayde? Why do you still do them?” And before Zayde could finish responding to this question, a third sibling interrupted: “But what is really happening here tonight, Zayde?” Zayde smiled and began to explain, waiting for the last child to interrupt. But that kid was too busy reading the commentaries in the Haggadah to ask anything at all.\n\nHmmm. I am not sure that that is the way it happened either.\n\n<h3>Which Child Was Which?</h3>\n\nFour children there were at seder, one wise, one wicked, one simple, and one who did not know how to ask a question. But which child was which? Was the wise child smart–or a smart aleck? Was the wicked child bad–or challenging? Was the simple child really simple? And was the fourth child unable to ask a question–or unwilling to do so? Which one was which?\n\nFour children there were at the seder, and we all take it for granted that one was wise and one was wicked, one was simple, and one did not know how to ask. But imagine that a parent declared: “I have four children: This one is the brain, this one the troublemaker, this one the dope and this one the silent.” Would we let such a statement pass? Would we let a teacher get away with saying, “I have four students, the brilliant one, the idiot, the loudmouth, and the one who never says a word?” What is the Haggadah getting at?\n\nPerhaps the Haggadah deliberately provides caricatures of four types of children to teach us something about the care we must take when we answer questions. Each person at our seder is coming from a different place. This one is older and more experienced. That one has never been to seder before. That other one was sick and did not expect to make it to seder, but is there. That one never learned to read Hebrew, and that one knows French.\n\nBy telling us the story of the four children, each with a distinct question and each with a distinct answer, the Haggadah is telling us to accept each person where they are and to begin from there. The questions that are asked must be addressed, and the questions that are not asked must be addressed.\n\n<h3>The Responsibility of Responding</h3>\n\nHow we answer questions is a big responsibility. Try, for example, reading the story of the four children backward, with the answers preceding the questions. The story then becomes a demonstration of how our approach to answering questions can so strongly influence the kinds of questions that will be asked in the future. An open sharing of knowledge, such as is offered to the “wise” child, encourages more questions, more searching, and this is possible at any age and any level of learning. Defensiveness and belligerence–such as is offered to the “wicked” child, encourages belligerence at best and complete turn-off at worst.\n\nSimple explanations encourage simple thinking; even simple questions often have complex answers, and ignorance is not the same as stupidity. And, always beginning the discussion for a child will prevent the child from learning how to ask. Too often, our categorizations of children become self-fulfilling prophesies, because of the power of our responses to influence future behavior. (I want to thank Uri Sobel for this insight.)\n\n<h3>Different Renderings</h3>\n\nOne of my favorite activities at the seder was to pass out different Haggadot and to compare illustrations of the Four Children. Depictions of the wicked child are particularly interesting. Many Haggadot render the wicked child as a knight or a soldier. It is not hard to realize where that image came from. Haggadot from the early part of this century often depict the wicked child as a gambler or a gangster, complete with a cigar. A kibbutzHaggadah shows the wicked child as a city dweller. A communist Haggadah shows the wicked child as a business man.\n\nIn introducing the tale of the four children, the Haggadah says: “k’neged arba banim dibra Torah .” This is usually translated as: “the Torah alludes to four children.” But perhaps it could also be rendered as: “The Torah speaks against the notion that there are four children.” One illustration that I find particularly meaningful comes from the Haggadah put out by the Rabbinical Assembly, and it shows paper cutouts of four bigger people with four littler people within. One cannot tell which child is which. As I see it, this illustration interprets the Haggadah to be teaching us that we are composite people. Sometimes we are this and sometimes we are that.\n\nEach one of us contains aspects of each child; each one of us is sometimes wise and sometimes wicked, sometimes simple and sometimes silent. We are the four children. As such we ask questions and we provide answers, different answers for different needs.\n\n<h3></h3>\n\nCOMMENTS\n\n\n<h2>DISCOVER MORE</h2>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/category/celebrate/passover/\">PASSOVER</a>\n\n<h3><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-four-questions/\">The Four Questions</a></h3>\n\nHow to say the 'Mah Nishtanah.'\n \n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/category/celebrate/passover/\">PASSOVER</a>\n\n<h3><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/passover-pesach-101/\">Passover (Pesach) 101</a></h3>\n\nWhat you need to know about the festival of freedom.\n \n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/category/celebrate/passover/\">PASSOVER</a>\n\n<h3><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/checklist-setting-the-seder-table/\">Checklist: Setting the Seder Table</a></h3>\n\nBefore launching into your seder, make sure you have everything you'll need.\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/category/celebrate/hanukkah/\">HANUKKAH</a>\n\n<h3><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hanukkah-2019/\">Hanukkah 2019</a></h3>\n\nIn 2019, the first night of Hanukkah is Sunday, Dec. 22.\n \n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/category/celebrate/more-holidays/tu-bshevat/\">TU BISHVAT</a>\n\n<h3><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tu-bshevat-2020/\">Tu Bishvat 2020</a></h3>\n\nIn 2020, the \"birthday of the trees\" begins at sundown on Sunday Feb. 9 and ends at sundown on Monday Feb. 10.\n \n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/category/pray/shabbat-prayers/\">SHABBAT PRAYERS</a>\n\n<h3><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/shabbat-blessings/\">Shabbat Blessings for Friday Night</a></h3>\n\nLighting the candles, saying Kiddush and other Shabbat dinner rituals.\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/category/celebrate/more-holidays/\">MORE HOLIDAYS</a>\n\n<h3><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/modern-jewish-holidays-101/\">Modern Jewish Holidays 101</a></h3>\n\nThere are a handful of holidays that entered Jewish life in the latter half of the 20th century.\n \n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/category/celebrate/shabbat/\">SHABBAT</a>\n\n<h3><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/shabbat-candles/\">How to Light Shabbat Candles</a></h3>\n\nWhat you need to know about this ritual welcoming the Sabbath.\n\n\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/\"><img src=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/themes/myjewishlearning/images/logo-badge-secondary.svg\" alt=\"logo-badge-secondary.svg\" /></a><a href=\"https://70facesmedia.networkforgood.com/projects/43585-my-jewish-learning-site-donation?utm_source=mjl_site&utm_medium=direct&utm_campaign=mjl_button_bottom\">DONATE</a>\n \n\n<h2>Join Our Newsletter</h2>\n\nEmpower your Jewish discovery, daily\n\n\nEmail\n\nSIGN UP\n\n\n<h2>Follow Us</h2>\n\n<ul>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/MyJewishLearning/\">Facebook</a></li>\n\t<li> </li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://twitter.com/jewlearn\">Twitter</a></li>\n\t<li> </li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/user/myjewishlearning\">YouTube</a></li>\n\t<li> </li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/myjewishlearningcom/\">Instagram</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<ul>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/about-us/\">About My Jewish Learning</a></li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/contact-mjl/\">Contact</a></li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://partnerships.70facesmedia.org/\">Advertise</a></li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/partner-blogs/\">Blogs</a></li>\n</ul>\n \n\n<ul>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/torah-portions/\">Weekly Torah</a></li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/shabbat-candle-lighting-times/\">Shabbat Times</a></li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/calendar-of-major-jewish-holidays/\">Jewish Calendar</a></li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/category/eat/jewish-recipes/\">Jewish Recipes</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/\">The Nosher</a>\n\n<a href=\"http://kveller.com/\">Kveller</a>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.jta.org/\">JTA</a>\n\n<a href=\"http://thejewniverse.com/\">Jewniverse</a>\n\n<a href=\"http://heyalma.com/\">Alma</a>\n<a href=\"http://70facesmedia.org/\"><img src=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/themes/myjewishlearning/images/logo-70faces.svg\" alt=\"logo-70faces.svg\" /></a>\n\nCopyright © 2002-2020 My Jewish Learning. 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Be sure to check heading and document order.\n\n\n\n\n\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Four Children", "slug": "four-children" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 270, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "The Four Children | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/the-four-children-74", "og:title": "The Four Children | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, "contributed_by": { "author": "Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "handle": "jane-taubenfeld-cohen", "author_initials": "JT", "total_books": 2, "total_clips": 8, "total_followers": 0, "is_following": 0 }, "user_book": null, "clips_by_author": [ { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "why-four-cups-of-wine", "title": "Why Four Cups of Wine", "author": "Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "author_handle": "jane-taubenfeld-cohen", "author_initials": "JT", "covertext": "Why four cups of wine by the seder? By Naftali Silberberg Wine is considered a royal drink, one that symbolizes freedom....", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<h1>Why four cups of wine by the seder?</h1>\n\nBy <a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/7528/jewish/Silberberg-Naftali.htm\">Naftali Silberberg</a>\n\n\n\nWine is considered a royal drink, one that symbolizes freedom. It is the appropriate beverage for the nights when we celebrate our freedom from Egyptian bondage.\n\nMany reasons are given for drinking four cups of wine. Here are some of them:\n\nWhen promising to deliver the Jews from Egyptian slavery, G‑d used four terms to describe the redemption (<a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/9867#v6\">Exodus 6:6</a>-8): a) \"I shall take you out...\" b) \"I shall rescue you...\" c) \"I shall redeem you...\" d) \"I shall bring you...\"\n\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<hr /></div>\n\nThe four cups symbolize our freedom from our four exilesWe were liberated from Pharaoh's four evil decrees: a) Slavery. b) The ordered murder of all male progeny by the Hebrew midwives. c) The drowning of all Hebrew boys in the Nile by Egyptian thugs. d) The decree ordering the Israelites to collect their own straw for use in their brick production.\n\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<hr /></div>\n\nThe four cups symbolize our freedom from our four exiles: The Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek exiles, and our current exile which we hope to be rid of very soon with the coming of Moshiach.\n\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<hr /></div>\n\nThe words \"cup of wine\" are mentioned four times in Pharaoh's butler's dream (<a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/8235#v11\">Genesis 40:11</a>-13). According to the Midrash, these cups of wine alluded to the Israelites' liberation.\n\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<hr /></div>\n\nAccording to Kabbalah, there are four forces of impurity (anti-divinity, or kelipah). On Passover, when we celebrate our physical freedom, we also celebrate our liberation from these spiritual forces. Our physical departure from Egypt was a reflection of our spiritual one—we were pulled from the clutches of depravity and impurity and set on the path to receiving the Torah and connecting with G‑d.\n\n\n\n<h1>Why Four Cups?</h1>\n\nPosted on June 7, 2002 By Rabbi Yehudah Prero | \n\n \n\nWhy do we drink four cups of wine at the Seder?\n\nThe most famous answer to this question revolves around two verses in Sh’mos/Exodus (6:6-7): \n\n“Therefore, say to the children of Israel ‘I am Hashem, and I SHALL TAKE YOU OUT from under the burdens of Egypt; I SHALL RESCUE YOU from their service; I SHALL REDEEM YOU with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I SHALL TAKE YOU TO ME for a people and I shall be a G-d to you….”\n\nIn these two verses, we find what are termed “The Four Expressions of Redemption.” G-d said to the nation of Israel using four different expressions that they would be taken out of slavery in Egypt. We therefore drink a cup of wine, on this night that we commemorate our redemption, for each expression of redemption that G-d uttered. \n\nThe Sh”lah gives another reason. On this night, we celebrate the birth of the Jewish people as a nation. We read in the Hagadah about our forefathers. Avraham originally worshipped idols. His son Yitzchak had two children, Yaakov and Esav. Yaakov ended up in Egypt where his son Yosef was. However, we do not read of the contributions of our mothers to the development of the nation of Israel. Each cup of wine represents one of our matriarchs. The first cup of wine is used to recite Kiddush, the sanctification of the day. In the Kiddush, we read how G-d has sanctified the nation of Israel with His mitzvos (commandments), which makes the Jewish people unique. Sarah was known for her efforts to spread the word of G-d to those who previously worshipped idols. It is with Kiddush, where we speak of this sanctification of the nation of Israel, that we commemorate Sarah, who exerted efforts to bring others into this fold. \n\nWe drink the second cup of wine after we have told the story of the birth of our nation. We have read how Avraham originally worshipped idols. We have read how the nation grew and developed. Rivka’s life progressed in a similar fashion. She was born into a family of idol worshipers and she grew to be one of the matriarchs of the nation of Israel. With the second cup of wine, we commemorate Rivka, who overcame an idolatrous background to become the mother of the Jewish people. \n\nAfter we conclude the Grace After Meals, we drink the third cup. Rachel was the mother of Yosef, who assured that the entire land of Egypt would have sustenance during the years of famine. It is fitting that we remember Rachel, the mother of the one who sustained a nation, after we have completed our meal. \n\nThe last cup of wine is drunk after we complete Hallel, the praises of G-d. Leah, upon the birth of her son Yehudah, said “This time I shall thank Hashem.” Why did Leah thank G-d upon the birth of her fourth son, and not with the previous three? The answer is that Leah realized that Yaakov was to have 12 children between his four wives. When she had her fourth son, she realized that she was given one more than her “share” in the unit that was the base for the nation of Israel. Of course she was thankful with each child. But with Yehudah, Leah knew that she had received something truly special, above and beyond what she should get. Therefore, she thanked Hashem when Yehudah was born. It is fitting that after we finish thanking Hashem for taking us out of Egypt, we remember Leah, who taught the Jewish people how and when to say thank you.\n\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "Favorites 2020", "slug": "favorites-2020", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Kadesh", "slug": "kadesh" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 515, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Why Four Cups of Wine | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/why-four-cups-of-wine", "og:title": "Why Four Cups of Wine | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "karpas-894", "title": "Karpas", "author": "Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "author_handle": "jane-taubenfeld-cohen", "author_initials": "JT", "covertext": "Shutterstock Karpas are fresh green vegetables — normally parsley — which are placed on the Seder plate. They symbolize...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "\n\nShutterstock\n\nKarpas are <a href=\"http://www.thedailymeal.com/10-foods-fight-bad-breath-slideshow/slide-4\">fresh green vegetables</a> — normally <a href=\"http://www.thedailymeal.com/healthy-eating/power-parsley-plus-recipe-tabbouleh-salad\">parsley</a> — which are placed on the Seder plate. They symbolize the <a href=\"http://www.thedailymeal.com/10-spring-recipes-your-party/42515\">freshness of spring</a>, as well as the harshness and slavery endured by the Hebrews. They are dipped in the salt <a href=\"http://www.thedailymeal.com/what-you-didnt-know-about-your-bottled-water\">water</a> before being eaten. ", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Karpas", "slug": "karpas" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 283, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Karpas | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/karpas-894", "og:title": "Karpas | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "yachatz-539", "title": "Yachatz", "author": "Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "author_handle": "jane-taubenfeld-cohen", "author_initials": "JT", "covertext": "Questions and Answers on Yachatz — Breaking the Middle Matzah By Moshe Bogomilsky \"יחץ\" “Breaking the matzah.” QUESTION:...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<h1>Questions and Answers on Yachatz — Breaking the Middle Matzah</h1>\n\nBy <a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/9311/jewish/Bogomilsky-Moshe.htm\">Moshe Bogomilsky</a>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h3>\"יחץ\" \n“Breaking the matzah.”</h3>\n\nQUESTION: What is the reason for breaking the middle matzah?\n\nANSWER: The matzah is broken before reciting the Haggadah because the recital is to be over lechem oni — bread of poverty — (the poor can afford only a broken piece — Pesachim 115b).\n\nThe broken piece is between the two whole matzot because the blessing of Hamotzi is to be recited over a whole matzah, and since there is a rule that “one must not by-pass mitzvot.” The upper [thus first accessible] matzah must therefore be whole, and afterwards the second berachah of “al achilat matzah,” will be made over the middle-broken matzah.\n\n(הגש\"פ עם לקוטי טעמים ומנהגים)\n\n* * *\n\nAlternatively, Hashem told Avraham of the Egyptian bondage at the Brit bein Habetarim — the Covenant Between the Portions. At that time He instructed him to take three heifers, three goats and three rams and split them in half (Bereishit 15:9). The three matzotcommemorate the three animals, and the breaking of the middle matzah commemorates splitting them in half.\n\n(הגש\"פ מוצל מאש - בית אהרן בפי' פאר אהרן)\n\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Yachatz", "slug": "yachatz" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 272, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Yachatz | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/yachatz-539", "og:title": "Yachatz | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "different-commentary-on-4-questions", "title": "different commentary on 4 questions", "author": "Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "author_handle": "jane-taubenfeld-cohen", "author_initials": "JT", "covertext": "Focus on Questions Questions are essential to the Seder. They must therefore be asked even when no child is present. For...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<div style=\"text-align:left;\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<h2>Focus on Questions</h2>\n\nQuestions are essential to the Seder. They must therefore be asked even when no child is present.\n\nFor example, even at a Seder attended only by two Torah scholars proficient in the laws of Passover, one scholar must ask the other. One who is alone asks the questions to himself. (Talmud, Pesachim 116a)\n\nWhat is the point of asking oneself the questions? The mitzvah tonight is to tell the story to another person. By asking yourself the questions, you become the “other” to whom you will relate the story. Role-playing in this manner helps a person absorb the information with greater clarity and profundity. (The Rebbe)<a>1</a>\n\n\n\n<h2>Questions Repeated</h2>\n\nOnce the children have asked the questions, the leader does not have to repeat them. (Maharil; Shulchan Aruch HaRav)\n\nNevertheless, the rebbes of Chabad, after hearing the children and grandchildren ask the questions, would then recite the questions themselves in an undertone.\n\nThis custom coincides with the opinion of Rambam, who maintains that the Seder leader recites the four questions. It is now the universal Chabad practice for everyone to recite the four questions after the children ask the questions. (The Rebbe)<a>2</a>\n\n\n\n<h2>After a Father’s Passing</h2>\n\nIt was the custom of the Chabad rebbes to preface their recitation of the four questions with the words, “Father, I will ask you the Four Questions.” They did so even long after the passing of their fathers,<a>3</a> and this is now the standard Chabad custom.<a>4</a>\n\n\n\n<div><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" alt=\"FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" /></div>\n\n\n\nMoses said to Joshua: “This nation that I am entrusting you with, they are still young goats, they are still children. Do not be irritated with them for what they do, for their Master too was not irritated with them for what they did.” As it is written, “When Israel was a youth, I loved him; from Egypt I summoned My son.”\n\nWhen Israel rebelled against G‑d at the Sea of Reeds, the angels said to G‑d: “They are rebelling and provoking, yet You are silent?!”\n\nG‑d said to the angels: “They are children. And one does not get irritated with children. Just as a child emerges soiled from the womb and is then washed, so too Israel: ‘I washed your blood from upon you. I anointed you with oil and dressed you in embroidered garments . . .’” (<a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/16114#v9\">Ezekiel 16:9</a>–10)\n\n—Yalkut Shimoni<a>5</a>\n\n\n\n<h2>Like the Love for a Child</h2>\n\nIt was handed down in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that there are two versions to the introduction to the Four Questions:\n\n<ol>\n\t<li>“Father, I want to ask of you four questions”;</li>\n\t<li>“Father, I will ask of you four questions.”</li>\n</ol>\n\nEach version, however, begins in an identical manner—“Father.” This refers to our Father in Heaven, to whom all of Israel ask the Four Questions. (Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch)\n\nThe child’s asking stimulates G‑d’s love for us, like the love of parents for their young child, as in the verse (<a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/16165#v1\">Hosea 11:1)</a> regarding the time of the Exodus: “For Israel is a youth, [therefore] I love him . . .”\n\nThe Torah in several instances describes us as being G‑d’s children. The above verse, however, emphasizes that G‑d’s love for us is like a parent’s love for a young child.\n\nParents love their children because the parent and child are of one essence. But this love is most felt for young children. As children mature, the parents begin to love them for their accomplishments and qualities as well, for their wisdom, good character, or the honor and care they show to their parents. This latter love obscures to some extent the innate, unconditional parental love.\n\nThe love for a young child, by contrast, who is not yet wise, or good, or helpful, is pure parental love, the unconditional love of two beings that are of one essence. The love for the young child is therefore stronger and more evident, since it is not obscured by a conditional love.\n\nSimilarly, when we speak of G‑d’s love for us in the way a parent loves a young child, we refer to this essential, unconditional love born of our inherent bond with G‑d.\n\n\n\n<h2>Staying Young</h2>\n\nWhen we become “mature” and self-aware because of our wisdom and accomplishments, we obscure our essential oneness with G‑d with our sense of self and separateness. But when we humble ourselves like a small child before G‑d, when we see our wisdom and accomplishments as an extension of our service of G‑d, the oneness is restored: we rediscover our youth and the special divine attention that comes with it. (The Rebbe)\n\n\n\n<div><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" alt=\"FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" /></div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2>Four Cups</h2>\n\nWe do not ask about the Four Cups, because drinking them is not a biblical requirement, nor does it involve any biblical requirement—it is entirely rabbinic in origin. Reclining and dipping, by contrast, although not biblical requirements per se, are connected to biblical requirements: reclining is done while fulfilling the biblical mitzvah of matzah; and dipping, at least the second one, involves the bitter herbs, likewise a biblical mitzvah in Templetimes. (Maharal)\n\n\n\n<div><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" alt=\"FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" /></div>\n\n\n\nOn this night we dip twice. Although we also dip the bitter herbs in charoset paste when eating the korech “sandwich,” we do not consider this a separate dipping from the bitter herbs dipping, since korech is performed only out of doubt as to how bitter herbs should be eaten. (Taz)<a>6</a>\n\nOn this night, bitter herbs. We do not say “on this night, only bitter herbs” as we say of the matzah, since we eat other vegetables during the first dipping. (Tosafot)<a>7</a>\n\nOn this night we all recline. This question appears neither in the Mishnah’s version of the questions, nor in that of the Talmud. Some have suggested that it was added at a later time, when people stopped reclining all year round. (The Vilna Gaon)\n\n\n\n<div><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" alt=\"FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" /></div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2>Development of the Four Questions</h2>\n\nWe find many different versions of the Four Questions in the various manuscripts of the Talmud—not only in the order of the questions, but in the number as well. Some versions, for example, omit the question about bitter herbs; others omit the question about the Paschal lamb, even in Temple times.\n\nThe above would seem to indicate that initially there were various acceptable versions, or perhaps no fixed version at all. This was because, according to Jewish law, one need not ask all the questions.\n\nAs the Talmud relates, when Abbaye as a child saw the table being removed from before Rabbah, he exclaimed: “We haven’t eaten yet—and they come and remove the table from before us?!” Rabbah turned to the child and said: “You have exempted us from having to say the four questions.”<a>8</a>\n\nAt some point, however, the sages consolidated the various customs and instituted a universal practice of reciting all the questions, so that all of Israel would follow the same custom.\n\nAnother example of this sort of development is the way we blow the shofar:\n\nThe requirement is to blow a wailing sound, called a teruah, preceded and followed by a simple blast, called a tekiah. According to Rav Hai Gaon,<a>9</a> for many centuries the definition of the “wailing” teruah remained unfixed, with various communities performing it in their own way. Some Jewish communities performed it as heavy groans. For others, it was very short “cries,” and yet other communities performed it as a combination of both.\n\nIn Talmudic times, the sages sought to unify all of Israel with a universal custom. They therefore instituted that all Jews blow the shofar in a manner that included all three customs. (The Rebbe’s Haggadah)\n\n\n\n<div><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" alt=\"FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" /></div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2>Sitting vs. Reclining</h2>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:left;\"><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/rHwX5264105.jpg?_i=_n32DD4A5CE5B40575DA87C67B35E082D2\" alt=\"rHwX5264105.jpg?_i=_n32DD4A5CE5B40575DA87C67B35E082D2\" /></div>\n\nChassidic teachings differentiate between two levels of loyalty and devotion to G‑d: an imposed devotion and an innate devotion. The first kind is experienced by those who are filled with an awareness of “self,” a feeling of being independent from G‑d and outside of Him. Yet, through study and contemplation, they come to the recognition that it is logical and good to devote themselves to their Creator, who is infinite.\n\nThey therefore overcome the “self” and devote themselves to G‑d. But the independent “self” remains intact; it is merely suppressed. (This is called bittul hayesh, and is associated with the lower three worlds, beriah, yetzirah and asiyah.)\n\nA higher level of devotion, usually associated with the saintly, is an existential and innate devotion, one in which there is no “self ” that needs to be overcome. Such a person is not susceptible at all to sin. (This is called bittul b’metziut and is associated with the highest world, atzilut, which is entirely permeated with divine awareness.)\n\nSitting and reclining are manifestations of these two levels of devotion:\n\n<ul>\n\t<li>Sitting: Imposed Devotion (beriah, yetzirah, asiyah).</li>\n\t<li>Reclining: Innate Devotion (atzilut).</li>\n</ul>\n\nWhen we sit down, our heads are brought to a lower position. This symbolizes a partial bowing to the divine, since the head is not completely lowered. But when we recline, our heads are nearly if not completely lowered. This symbolizes an absolute and innate “bowing” to the divine.\n\nTonight we all recline: Tonight, because of the intensity of the divine revelation that occurred on this night, and which reverberates each year, kulanu mesubin, we all recline—we are all imbued with an innate devotion to the divine. This fleeting revelation that overwhelms us on Passover gives us a jolt, a jump-start for the work of refining the “self” during the forty-nine days between Passover and Shavuot. (The Rebbe)<a>10</a>\n\n\n\n<h2>Customs</h2>\n\nOf all the rituals addressed by the child, dipping seems to be least important. Unlike matzah and bitter herbs, it is not a biblical or rabbinic mitzvah; and unlike reclining, it does not express a central theme of the holiday.\n\nHow striking, then, that the first of the four questions addresses neither the first ritual the child encounters—reclining while drinking the kiddush wine—nor the more essential rituals of the night, but a custom!\n\nThe haggadah thereby addresses a misconception regarding the place of custom in Judaism. Some consider customs to be nonessential, a “luxury.” They recognize the need to make sacrifices for fulfilling G‑d’s commandments, but they would not do the same for “mere” customs. In regards to educating children, they argue, we ought to compromise on the customs so as to better focus on the primary obligations.\n\nThe Four Questions tell us otherwise. What is the first thing that the child asks about? What grabs his or her attention and makes the deepest impression? Jewish customs. Not only are they not expendable, they are central. For the customs have the unique capacity to sensitize a child to the sanctity of Torah and G‑d’s commandments.\n\nThe customs give our children a strong Jewish identity and the sense that they are part of a nation chosen by G‑d to be beacons of goodness and holiness in this world. (The Rebbe)<a>11</a>\n\n\n\n<h2>Holy Questions</h2>\n\nQuestioning is essential to acquiring wisdom. Without critical analysis, one’s wisdom is incomplete. On the other hand, the quality of faith and simplicity precludes questioning, as in the verse (<a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/9982#v13\">Deut. 18:13)</a>, “You shall be wholehearted with G‑d.”\n\nIntellectualization and simplicity are two mutually exclusive traits that cannot possibly coexist. Our sages therefore instituted questions within the realm of holiness. These have the mystical effect of refining the phenomenon of “questions,” enabling us to maintain simplicity even while engaged in intellectual endeavor. (Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch)<a>12</a>\n\n\n\n<div><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" alt=\"FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" /></div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2>The Order</h2>\n\nThis order of the questions—(1) dipping, (2) matzah, (3) bitter herbs, (4) reclining—is the order found in the version of the Mishnah as it appears in the Jerusalem Talmud, Alfasi and Rosh (though the last two questions do not appear there). This is also the order found in the siddurim of Rav Amram Gaon and Rav Saadiah Gaon, Rambam, Tur, Avudraham (by implication, since his commentary addresses the question about dipping before the others), Abarbanel, Pri Etz Chaim, siddur of the Arizal, Mishnat Chasidim, and others. It is also the order found in the first printed haggadah (Soncino, 1485).\n\nIt also follows the order of the night, where dipping (of the karpas, at least) precedes the eating of matzah, which is followed by bitter herbs. The question about reclining comes last, since it was added long after the first three questions were composed. (The Rebbe’s Haggadah)\n\n<div style=\"text-align:left;\"><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/tfMS5264102.jpg?_i=_n32DD4A5CE5B40575DA87C67B35E082D2\" alt=\"tfMS5264102.jpg?_i=_n32DD4A5CE5B40575DA87C67B35E082D2\" /></div>\n\nFrom a mystical perspective, the order of the questions follows the order of the spiritual worlds, from the lowest to the loftiest, as follows (Pri Etz Chaim):\n\n<ul>\n\t<li>Dipping: Asiyah—World of Actuality</li>\n\t<li>Matzah: Yetzirah—World of Formation</li>\n\t<li>Bitter herbs: Beriah—World of Creation</li>\n\t<li>Reclining: Atzilut—World of Emanation</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<div><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/EnUi5265637.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" alt=\"EnUi5265637.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" /></div>\n\n\n\n<h3>Traditional Rendition of the Four Questions</h3>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align:right;\"><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/OKFa5265635.jpg?_i=_n5D0315AB1B76071025D278E74CDA342E\" alt=\"OKFa5265635.jpg?_i=_n5D0315AB1B76071025D278E74CDA342E\" /></div>\nFather, I will ask you four questions:\n\n\n\nMa nishtana halai-lö ha-ze mikol halay-los?\n\nWhat makes Passover night different from all nights of the year?\n\nThe first question is:\n\nSheb’chöl halay-los ayn önu matbilin afilu pa-am echös, halai-lö ha-ze sh’tay f’ömim.\n\nOn all nights of the year we do not [need to] dip even once, but on Passover night we dip twice! The first time, we dip karpas in salt water, and the second time, bitter herbs in charoset paste.\n\nThe second question is:\n\nSheb’chöl halay-los önu och’lin chömaytz o matzö, halai-lö ha-ze kulo matzö.\n\nOn all nights of the year we eat chametz or matzah, but on Passover night we eat only matzah!\n\nThe third question is:\n\nSheb’chöl halay-los önu och’lin sh’ör y’rökos, halai-lö ha-ze möror.\n\nOn all nights of the year we eat various vegetables, but on Passover night we eat bitter vegetables!\n\nThe fourth question is:\n\nSheb’chöl halay-los önu och’lin bayn yosh’vin uvayn m’subin, halai-lö ha-ze kulönu m’subin.\n\nOn all nights of the year we eat either sitting upright or reclining, but on Passover night we all eat while reclining!\n\n(Father, I have asked you four questions, now please give me an answer.)\n\n\n\n<div><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" alt=\"FlHP5264106.jpg?_i=_nD6C4982354E8EEFCEA38DC71D819F450\" /></div>\n\n\n\n<blockquote>\n<div style=\"text-align:left;\"><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/526/Oppl5264988.jpg?_i=_n2EB8A081D0DAB46AFD53B01E99740136\" alt=\"Oppl5264988.jpg?_i=_n2EB8A081D0DAB46AFD53B01E99740136\" /></div>\n\nAn excerpt from the new Passover Haggadah: With Commentary from the Classic Commentators, Midrash, Kabbalah, the Chasidic Masters and the Haggadah of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory.\n\nSet in elegant, two-color type with lively, original artwork, and printed in a deluxe gift edition, this haggadah sets a new standard for beauty, clarity, comprehensiveness and relevance.\n\nThis new haggadah will sparkle on your Seder table, and will be the subject of conversation of friends and family, as the beauty of Passover and its eternal messages come alive in this monumental work.\n\n<a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/article.asp?AID=1487058\">Purchase the new volume here</a>.\n</blockquote>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div>\n<div style=\"text-align:left;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/3842971/jewish/Four-Questions-or-Four-Statements.htm\">« Previous</a>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/3842971/jewish/Four-Questions-or-Four-Statements.htm\">Four Questions or Four Statements?</a></div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:right;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1483424/jewish/Why-Ask-the-Four-Questions-on-Passover.htm\">Next »</a>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1483424/jewish/Why-Ask-the-Four-Questions-on-Passover.htm\">Why Ask the Four Questions on Passover? </a></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<div>FOOTNOTES</div>\n\n<div>\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef1a1486798\">1.</a>\n\n<div>\nLikkutei Sichot, vol. 12, p. 43.\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef2a1486798\">2.</a>\n\n<div>\nTorat Menachem—Hitvaaduyot 5743, vol. 3, p. 1230.\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef3a1486798\">3.</a>\n\n<div>\nSefer Hasichot 5704, p. 87.\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef4a1486798\">4.</a>\n\n<div>\nTorat Menachem, ibid., p. 1231.\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef5a1486798\">5.</a>\n\n<div>\n§527.\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef6a1486798\">6.</a>\n\n<div>\nOrach Chaim 475:6.\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef7a1486798\">7.</a>\n\n<div>\nPesachim 115b, s.v. Halailah.\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef8a1486798\">8.</a>\n\n<div>\nPesachim 115b; see Tosafot ad loc.\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef9a1486798\">9.</a>\n\n<div>\nCited in Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim §590.\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef10a1486798\">10.</a>\n\n<div>\nTorat Menachem 5712, vol. 2, pp. 111ff & 122ff.\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef11a1486798\">11.</a>\n\n<div>\nLikkutei Sichot, vol. 1, p. 244.\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;\"><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#footnoteRef12a1486798\">12.</a>\n\n<div>\nSefer Hasichot 5697, p. 224.\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/2855/jewish/Yossi-Marcus.htm\">By Yosef Marcus</a></div>\n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div> </div>\n\n<div>Published and copyright by <a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=81267\">Kehot Publication Society</a>, all rights reserved.</div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div> </div>\n</div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/2855/jewish/Yossi-Marcus.htm\">More from Yossi Marcus</a> | <a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/tools/rss/author_rss.xml?kid=2855\">RSS</a></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<h2>More in this section</h2>\n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1483424/jewish/Why-Ask-the-Four-Questions-on-Passover.htm\">Why Ask the Four Questions on Passover? </a></li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/272522/jewish/The-Fifth-Question.htm\">The Fifth Question</a></li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/2538673/jewish/Answers-to-the-4-Questions.htm\">Answers to the 4 Questions</a></li>\n</ul>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<ul>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/2538676/jewish/Why-Is-Chabads-Four-Questions-Different-Than-All-Others.htm\">Why Is Chabad's Four Questions Different Than All Others'?</a></li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/library/howto/trainer_cdo/aid/2481410/jewish/Ma-Nishtanah-Trainer.htm\">Ma Nishtanah Trainer</a></li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=2538662\">View All »</a></li>\n</ul>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<h2>You may also be interested in...</h2>\n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/library/howto/trainer_cdo/aid/2481410/jewish/Ma-Nishtanah-Trainer.htm\"><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/883/iROx8838033.jpg\" alt=\"iROx8838033.jpg\" /></a></div>\n\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/library/howto/trainer_cdo/aid/2481410/jewish/Ma-Nishtanah-Trainer.htm\">Ma Nishtanah Trainer</a></div>\n\n<div>Learn to ask the Four Questions with this interactive tool</div>\n\n<div> </div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1168490/jewish/A-Night-of-Questions.htm\"><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/295/nYdO2959507.jpg\" alt=\"nYdO2959507.jpg\" /></a></div>\n\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1168490/jewish/A-Night-of-Questions.htm\">A Night of Questions</a></div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1168490/jewish/A-Night-of-Questions.htm#comments\">2 Comments</a></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div> </div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/662797/jewish/Mah-Nishtanah.htm\"><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/528/ooCp5288327.jpg\" alt=\"ooCp5288327.jpg\" /></a></div>\n\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/662797/jewish/Mah-Nishtanah.htm\">Mah Nishtanah</a></div>\n\n<div>The Four Questions</div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/662797/jewish/Mah-Nishtanah.htm\">Listen (3:41)</a> <a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/662797/jewish/Mah-Nishtanah.htm#comments\">27 Comments</a></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<div> </div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/video_cdo/aid/1167374/jewish/Haggadah-Insights-Part-1.htm\"><img src=\"https://w3.chabad.org/media/images/400/bSjZ4003195.jpg\" alt=\"bSjZ4003195.jpg\" /></a></div>\n\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/video_cdo/aid/1167374/jewish/Haggadah-Insights-Part-1.htm\">Haggadah Insights</a></div>\n\n<div>Part 1: The emphasis on asking questions</div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/video_cdo/aid/1167374/jewish/Haggadah-Insights-Part-1.htm\">Watch (8:01)</a> <a href=\"#comments\">2 Comments</a></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n<a></a>\n\n<div>\n<h2>Join the Discussion</h2>\n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>SORT BY:</div>\n\n<div>NewestOldest</div>\n</div>\n\n<div>5 Comments</div>\n\n<div> </div>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<div></div>\n<a></a>\n\n\n<div>\n<div></div>\n</div>\n\n</div>\n\n<div>\n\n<div>\n<div></div>\n \n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>John Campana Sun City WestApril 14, 2016</div>\n</div>\n\nI am Italian by birth but my heart has always been with the Jewish people. The reason is that my best friend. and my best friends have always been Jewish. As I was growing up and now at the age of 87, my best friends are still Jewish. May God continue to protect and guide the Jewish people as He has since the days of Moses. \nJohn Sam Campana<a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#\">Reply</a>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<div></div>\n \n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>Anonymous Pasay, PhilippinesJuly 5, 2012</div>\n</div>\n\nShalomthank you for having an access to see and know the real passover based on the Torah. I loved Our G-D who is the Sole Creator of the Universe. Shalom... <a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#\">Reply</a>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<div></div>\n \n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>ruth housman marshfield hills, maApril 4, 2012</div>\n</div>\n\nthis is a beautiful explicationI never realized reclining in this way. About Azilut. \n \nThe importance of children is beautifully explicated, as being closer to the Source, as in what you wrote about separate ness as we individuate as adults, but then go back to our roots, to that which is ONE, and totally within that merger, being with what is Divine.<a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#\">Reply</a>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<div></div>\n \n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>steve rainbow southend on sea, EssexMarch 26, 2012</div>\n</div>\n\nPassoverMay you all partake in a good passover and may the Holy Creator of the Universe bless you and keep you in His care.<a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#\">Reply</a>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<div></div>\n \n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>Anonymous Hutchinson, KansasSeptember 23, 2011</div>\n</div>\n\npassoverI want to learn this pass over. Tell me where it is in April<a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1486798/jewish/The-Four-Questions-Explained.htm#\">Reply</a>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div> </div>\n</div>\n\n\n<div> </div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div> </div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/default_cdo/jewish/Passover.htm\">Passover</a></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1846/jewish/How-to-Celebrate-Passover.htm\">How to Celebrate Passover</a></div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1980/jewish/Passover-Seder.htm\">Passover Seder</a></div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1735/jewish/The-Haggadah.htm\">The Haggadah</a>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/2538665/jewish/Printable-Haggadahs.htm\">Printable Haggadahs</a></div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/2538662/jewish/The-Four-Questions.htm\">The Four Questions</a></div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/492077/jewish/Thoughts-on-the-Haggadah.htm\">Thoughts on the Haggadah</a></div>\n</div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1844/jewish/Study-History.htm\">Study & History</a></div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1667/jewish/Stories.htm\">Stories</a></div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1923/jewish/Multimedia.htm\">Multimedia</a></div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/32593/jewish/Recipes.htm\">Recipes</a></div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/seders.htm\">Find a Passover Seder Near You</a></div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/sell_chometz_cdo/jewish/Sell-Your-Chametz-Online.htm\">Sell Your Chametz Online</a></div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/store/product.asp?dept=3030\">Passover Store</a></div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/265986/jewish/Order-Matzah-Online.htm\">Order Matzah Online</a></div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/kids/article_cdo/aid/354750/jewish/Passover.htm\">Passover Kids Site</a></div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/tools/cards/default_cdo/aid/872029/jewish/Passover-Cards-Invitations.htm\">Passover Cards & Invitations</a></div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/109896/jewish/Passover-in-other-Languages.htm\">Passover in other Languages</a></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<div>Related Topics</div>\n\n<div>\n<ul>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/search/keyword.htm/kid/7118\">Haggadah</a> (128)</li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/search/keyword.htm/kid/2409\">Four Questions</a> (30)</li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/search/keyword.htm/kid/145\">Passover</a> (1425)</li>\n</ul>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n<div>\n<div>Subscribe</div>\n\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">SUBSCRIBE</div>\n\n<div></div>\n</div>\n\n<div> </div>\n\n<div>Subscribe to Holiday Guide</div>\n</div>\n\n<div> </div>\n</div>\n\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https://www.chabad.org/tools/subscribe/default.asp\">More subscription options »</a></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n</div>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Four Questions", "slug": "four-questions" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 334, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "different commentary on 4 questions | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/different-commentary-on-4-questions", "og:title": "different commentary on 4 questions | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "ha-lachma-anya-33", "title": "Ha Lachma Anya", "author": "Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "author_handle": "jane-taubenfeld-cohen", "author_initials": "JT", "covertext": "Credit:Understanding ‘Ha Lachma Anya’ By Rabbi Raphael Fuchs - 7 Nisan 5775 – March 26, 2015 In most texts of the Hag...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<h1 style=\"text-align:center;\">Credit:Understanding ‘Ha Lachma Anya’</h1>\n\nBy\n\n <a href=\"https://www.jewishpress.com/author/rabbi-raphael-fuchs/\">Rabbi Raphael Fuchs</a>\n\n -\n\n 7 Nisan 5775 – March 26, 2015\n\n\n\nIn most texts of the Haggadah, Magid commences with the paragraph Ha lachma anya. In this Aramaic text we recite, “Kol dichfin yeisei veyaichol – whoever is hungry come and eat.” For several reasons, this is a rather peculiar statement to make before beginning the mitzvah of sipur yetzias Mitzrayim.\n\nFirst, the Gemara in Taanis (20b) says that Rav Huna would make this very statement every time he would break bread. If Rav Huna would make this declaration on a daily basis, why do we only recite it on the night of the Seder?\n\nAdvertisement \n\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<hr /></div>\n\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">\n<hr /></div>\n\n\n\nAdditionally, it is very easy to make this declaration in the confines of one’s home, where no one else can hear him. As the adage goes, “Talk is cheap.” What is the purpose of inviting people when they cannot hear your invitation?\n\nThe Ritvah in his commentary to the Haggadah suggests that on the night of the Seder every person must envision as if he or she left Mitzrayim that night. One must feel as if he was just freed from slavery. A slave owns nothing. Only a free man can own things. A slave can never invite someone to his meal. Therefore, before we begin our first meal as free men, we declare that we would like to invite whomever would like to come. Even though we know that no one can hear us, we make the declaration to demonstrate to ourselves that we were just freed from slavery.\n\nWhile Rav Huna made this declaration on a daily basis, this is not our custom. We do declare it at the beginning of the Seder to establish our freedom.\n\nAlternatively, the Vilna Gaon says that the mitzvah of matzah is connected to the mitzvah of tzedakah. The Yerushalmi in Bava Basra says that there is an inyan to give maos chitin before Pesachto enable people to acquire matzah. Based on this we can suggest that the reason why we make an open invitation at the onset of the Seder is because the mitzvah of matzah requires us to ensure that others will have matzah as well. The passage begins with the words Ha lachma anya, which means this is the poor man’s bread [that our fathers ate in Mitzrayim] referring to the matzah. As we mention the matzah, it is imperative that we invite others to join, as the mitzvah of matzah demands.\n\nHa lachma anya continues by stating, “Kol d’tzrich yeisei v’yifsach – whoever needs should come and eat the korban Pesach. Why is it necessary to invite people to eat from the korban Pesach?\n\nPerhaps this invitation is not meant for poor people alone, but for anyone, even someone with the means to eat his own korban. The reason for this is because there is a dispute in the Mishnah in Pesachim 91a whether one may shecht a korban Pesach for an individual or if it must be shechted for a group of people. We paskenthat the korban Pesach may be shechted for an individual. However, the Rambam writes in Hilchos Korban Pesach (2:2) that ideally one should shecht the korban Pesach only for a group of people, not for an individual. It is conceivable that it is for this reason that we declare an open invitation to join in the eating of the korban Pesach.\n\nBased on this the sefer Harerei Kedem (biurim on the Haggadah) says that the fourth question of the Ma Nishtanah may be interpreted differently from the general understanding. The wording of the Mishnah that has the questions is “Halayla hazeh kulanu mesubin – on this night we all [eat] mesubin.” The general translation of mesubin is reclining. However, in the GemaraBerachos 43b the word mesubin is used to mean eaten in a group. Perhaps the question that the Ma Nishtanah was asking is why it is that tonight we all are careful to eat in groups, whereas on every other night we eat separately.\n\n\n\n\n\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Maggid - Beginning", "slug": "maggid-beginning" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 274, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Ha Lachma Anya | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/ha-lachma-anya-33", "og:title": "Ha Lachma Anya | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "the-10-plagues-from-my-jewish-learning", "title": "The 10 Plagues from My Jewish Learning", "author": "Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "author_handle": "jane-taubenfeld-cohen", "author_initials": "JT", "covertext": "PASSOVER The Ten Plagues Of blood, frogs, hail and more. BY RABBI JACOBS One of the most dramatic moments of the Passove...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<img src=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/frogs-plague-vaera-exodus-egyptian-1593x900.jpg\" alt=\"frogs-plague-vaera-exodus-egyptian-1593x900.jpg\" />\n\n<a>PASSOVER</a>\n\n<h1>The Ten Plagues</h1>\n\nOf blood, frogs, hail and more.\n\nBY <a>RABBI JACOBS</a>\n\nOne of the most dramatic moments of the <a>Passover seder</a> comes with the recitation of the 10 plagues that, the Bible says, God brought on the Egyptians to persuade Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery. As we recite each plague, we spill a drop of wine in recognition, according to many interpretations, that the process of our liberation caused suffering to the Egyptian people.\n\nThough it’s one of the best known details of the <a>Exodus story</a>, the plague narrative raises a number of complicated questions. Given the biblical assumption of God’s omnipotence, one might expect God to be able to whisk the Israelites out of Egypt without such dramatic measures. The biblical story also does not explain the significance of the specific set of plagues that God imposes on the Egyptians. And many contemporary Jews are bothered by what seems to be excessive and perhaps needless suffering on the part of the Egyptian population for the sins of its leader.\n\n<h2>The Plagues</h2>\n\n<ol>\n\t<li>Blood</li>\n\t<li>Frogs</li>\n\t<li>Lice</li>\n\t<li>Flies</li>\n\t<li>Pestilence</li>\n\t<li>Boils</li>\n\t<li>Hail</li>\n\t<li>Locusts</li>\n\t<li>Darkness</li>\n\t<li>Killing of the firstborn</li>\n</ol>\n\n<h2>Traditional Interpretations</h2>\n\nA number of rabbinic sources describe the plagues as retribution for Pharaoh’s rejection of God and for the Egyptians’ idol worshipping practices. In explaining the first plague, one <a>midrash</a> comments, “Why were the waters first smitten and with blood? Because Pharaoh and the Egyptians worshipped the Nile, and God said, ‘I will smite their god first and then his people.'” (<a>Shemot Rabbah </a><a>9:9</a>). Likewise, <a>Ramban</a>, a 12th-century Jewish commentator, suggests that God punishes Pharaoh not primarily for enslaving the Israelite people, but rather for dismissing God and ignoring a divine command (see his comment to <a>Exodus 7:16</a>). The final plague, the killing of the firstborn, targets both the people and their most visible god–Pharaoh–who also loses his oldest son and thus the successor to the throne.\n\nThe primary goal of the plagues, according to most rabbinic sources, is the demonstration of God’s unparalleled power. Pharaoh’s magicians succeed in replicating the first two plagues — blood and frogs — but stumble in their attempts to produce lice. Several commentators explain this failure by noting the use of the word “l’hotzi,” “to bring out,” in the description of the plague of lice. Producing the plagues of blood or frogs requires only the transformation of an existing substance: God, through Moses and Aaron, changes the water to blood and draws (presumably pre-existing) frogs out of the water. In contrast, God creates the lice. Only the creator of the universe, according to the rabbis, can create something new. These unreplicable plagues persuade Pharaoh and his people of God’s power and build faith in God among the people of Israel.\n\nAs further evidence of the miraculous nature of the plagues, one midrash notes the biblical description of the plague of hail as a mixture of fire and ice, commenting:\n\n<blockquote>\nImagine two fierce legions who were always at war with one another, but when the king needed their services for his own battle, he made peace with them, so that both should carry out the orders of the king. In like manner, fire and hail are hostile to each other, but when the time came to make war with Egypt, God made peace between them and both smote the Egyptians. (<a>Shemot Rabbah</a><a>12:4</a>)\n</blockquote>\n\nThe midrash further understands the hail to prefigure the punishment that, according to the Book of Ezekiel, God will bring on Gog and Magog in the war that will precede the coming of the messianic age. In linking the redemption of the Israelites from slavery with the ultimate redemption of the world, the midrash implicitly justifies any violence as a necessary means of reaching an unambiguously-positive end. Beyond being a punishment to the Egyptians, the plagues are a step in the process of redeeming the world.\n\n<h2>Contemporary Interpretations</h2>\n\nMany contemporary explanations of the ten plagues attempt to reconcile the presumed suffering of the Egyptians with modern-day conceptions of ethics and treatment of the other. Rabbi David Teutsch, a former president of the <a>Reconstructionist</a> Rabbinical College, for example, suggests that God is not, in fact, the author of the harshest plague — that of the murder of the firstborn of Egypt. Rather, he says, it is human beings who interpret this event as divine:\n\n<blockquote>\nHow can we understand God’s role in the death of the firstborn? One explanation suggests that all who did not defend the Israelite slaves in Egypt are responsible for what Pharaoh imposed. Thus, God’s punishment of the Egyptians was justified. Another explanation holds that only in hindsight did the Israelites see the hand of God in the death of the Egyptians. God does not intervene in human history this way… By this reckoning, what is important is not whether the firstborn died, but whether we can see the power of human redemption in our lives as flowing from the divine.” (Rabbi Joy Levitt and Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, ed., <a>A Night of Questions</a>, 61).\n</blockquote>\n\nRather than justify the plagues, some modern-day commentators instead try to sharpen our awareness of the suffering caused by these plagues in order to help us empathize with others who are oppressed. <a>The Journey Continues: The Ma’yan Haggadah</a>, produced by the women’s program of the Jewish Community Center of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, offers the following meditation on the plagues:\n\n<blockquote>\nAs we ate our Pascal lambs that last night in Egypt the darkness was pierced with screams. Our door posts were protected by a sign of blood. But from the windows of the Egyptians rose an anguished cry: the death of the first-born.\n\nYah Sh’chinah [an appeal to God using a term associated with God’s feminine side]soften our hearts and the hearts of our enemies. Help us to dream new paths to freedom.\n\nSo that the next sea-opening is not also a drowning; so that our singing is never again their wailing. So that our freedom leaves no one orphaned, childless, gasping for air.” (Tamara Cohen, ed., <a>The Journey Continues</a>, 70)\n</blockquote>\n\nMany Jews update the seder by supplementing the recitation of the biblical plagues with the mention of contemporary “plagues” such as war, hatred, and disease. The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs’ Immigrant Justice Haggadah counts as plagues “the detention of immigrants, unwarranted deportations, hate crimes, the denial of drivers’ licenses and other services to undocumented immigrants, hopelessness, apathy, and fear of speaking out.” The Love and Justice Haggadah includes in a tongue-in-cheek list of the plagues of contemporary life — “reality TV, muzak, and SUVs.” Feminist Haggadahs add plagues such as sexism and violence against women; environmental Haggadahs mention the destruction of natural resources; and Haggadahs focused on inter-group relations speak of the plagues of prejudice and distrust.\n\nEvery modern application of the story of slavery and liberation necessitates the creation of a new list of “plagues” to be eradicated.\n\nThe plague narrative is both an integral part of the Exodus story and one of the most difficult parts of this story to understand. Contemporary readings of the Exodus therefore struggle to reinterpret the plagues to reflect our current consciousness and/or to expand the list of plagues in order to draw attention to all of the parts of the world that remain in need of liberation.\n\nCOMMENTS\n\n<h2>DISCOVER MORE</h2>\n\n<a>PASSOVER</a>\n\n<h3><a>Passover (Pesach) 101</a></h3>\n\nWhat you need to know about the festival of freedom.\n\n<a>PASSOVER</a>\n\n<h3><a>The Passover (Pesach) Seder</a></h3>\n\nThe most celebrated and beloved of Jewish home rituals.\n\n<a>PASSOVER</a>\n\n<h3><a>Checklist: Setting the Seder Table</a></h3>\n\nBefore launching into your seder, make sure you have everything you'll need.\n\n<a>HANUKKAH</a>\n\n<h3><a>Hanukkah 2019</a></h3>\n\nIn 2019, the first night of Hanukkah is Sunday, Dec. 22.\n\n<a>TU BISHVAT</a>\n\n<h3><a>Tu Bishvat 2020</a></h3>\n\nIn 2020, the \"birthday of the trees\" begins at sundown on Sunday Feb. 9 and ends at sundown on Monday Feb. 10.\n\n<a>SHABBAT PRAYERS</a>\n\n<h3><a>Shabbat Blessings for Friday Night</a></h3>\n\nLighting the candles, saying Kiddush and other Shabbat dinner rituals.\n\n\n\n<a><img src=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/themes/myjewishlearning/images/logo-badge-secondary.svg\" alt=\"logo-badge-secondary.svg\" /></a><a>DONATE</a>\n\n\n\n<h2>Join Our Newsletter</h2>\n\nEmpower your Jewish discovery, daily\n\nEmail\n\nSIGN UP\n\n<h2>Follow Us</h2>\n\n<ul>\n\t<li><a>Facebook</a></li>\n\t<li><a>Twitter</a></li>\n\t<li><a>YouTube</a></li>\n\t<li><a>Instagram</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<ul>\n\t<li><a>About My Jewish Learning</a></li>\n\t<li><a>Contact</a></li>\n\t<li><a>Advertise</a></li>\n\t<li><a>Blogs</a></li>\n\t<li><a>Weekly Torah</a></li>\n\t<li><a>Shabbat Times</a></li>\n\t<li><a>Jewish Calendar</a></li>\n\t<li><a>Jewish Recipes</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<a>The Nosher</a>\n\n<a>Kveller</a>\n\n<a>JTA</a>\n\n<a>Jewniverse</a>\n\n<a>Alma</a>\n\n<a><img src=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/themes/myjewishlearning/images/logo-70faces.svg\" alt=\"logo-70faces.svg\" /></a>\n\nCopyright © 2002-2020 My Jewish Learning. All Rights Reserved\n\n<a>Privacy Policy</a>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Ten Plagues", "slug": "ten-plagues" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 306, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "The 10 Plagues from My Jewish Learning | Passover haggadah by Jane Taubenfeld Cohen", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. 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The Four Children

Haggadah Section: -- Four Children

The Four Questions page from the Arthur Szyk's 1935 Haggadah. (Wikimedia Commons)

Answering the Four Children

What to make of the wise, wicked, simple, and silent children at the seder

BY RABBI SPITZER

Four children came to seder . One was wise, one was wicked, one was simple, and one was silent.

It was seder night at long last. The family gathered around the table, and Zayde (Grandpa, in Yiddish) began reading the Haggadah . Suddenly one child was heard to ask in an undertone: “What is going on here, anyway?” At that point another child muttered: “Yeah, what does all this mean to you? Let’s eat already!” Another child piped up: “I know what is going on. I know what he is reading. I know everything about Pesach.” The last child didn’t say anything, but managed to look manifestly bored, as Zayde continued reading the Haggadah, oblivious to the murmuring.

No, that can’t be how it happened. I’ll try again.

It was seder night at long last. The family gathered around the table, and Zayde began reading the Haggadah. Suddenly one child interrupted: “What are all these laws and customs and practices which God has given to you? I want to know.” Zayde began to explain the intricacies of Pesach law, when there was another interruption: “You tell us all these things, but what do they really mean to you, Zayde? Why do you still do them?” And before Zayde could finish responding to this question, a third sibling interrupted: “But what is really happening here tonight, Zayde?” Zayde smiled and began to explain, waiting for the last child to interrupt. But that kid was too busy reading the commentaries in the Haggadah to ask anything at all.

Hmmm. I am not sure that that is the way it happened either.

Which Child Was Which?

Four children there were at seder, one wise, one wicked, one simple, and one who did not know how to ask a question. But which child was which? Was the wise child smart–or a smart aleck? Was the wicked child bad–or challenging? Was the simple child really simple? And was the fourth child unable to ask a question–or unwilling to do so? Which one was which?

Four children there were at the seder, and we all take it for granted that one was wise and one was wicked, one was simple, and one did not know how to ask. But imagine that a parent declared: “I have four children: This one is the brain, this one the troublemaker, this one the dope and this one the silent.” Would we let such a statement pass? Would we let a teacher get away with saying, “I have four students, the brilliant one, the idiot, the loudmouth, and the one who never says a word?” What is the Haggadah getting at?

Perhaps the Haggadah deliberately provides caricatures of four types of children to teach us something about the care we must take when we answer questions. Each person at our seder is coming from a different place. This one is older and more experienced. That one has never been to seder before. That other one was sick and did not expect to make it to seder, but is there. That one never learned to read Hebrew, and that one knows French.

By telling us the story of the four children, each with a distinct question and each with a distinct answer, the Haggadah is telling us to accept each person where they are and to begin from there. The questions that are asked must be addressed, and the questions that are not asked must be addressed.

The Responsibility of Responding

How we answer questions is a big responsibility. Try, for example, reading the story of the four children backward, with the answers preceding the questions. The story then becomes a demonstration of how our approach to answering questions can so strongly influence the kinds of questions that will be asked in the future. An open sharing of knowledge, such as is offered to the “wise” child, encourages more questions, more searching, and this is possible at any age and any level of learning. Defensiveness and belligerence–such as is offered to the “wicked” child, encourages belligerence at best and complete turn-off at worst.

Simple explanations encourage simple thinking; even simple questions often have complex answers, and ignorance is not the same as stupidity. And, always beginning the discussion for a child will prevent the child from learning how to ask. Too often, our categorizations of children become self-fulfilling prophesies, because of the power of our responses to influence future behavior. (I want to thank Uri Sobel for this insight.)

Different Renderings

One of my favorite activities at the seder was to pass out different Haggadot and to compare illustrations of the Four Children. Depictions of the wicked child are particularly interesting. Many Haggadot render the wicked child as a knight or a soldier. It is not hard to realize where that image came from. Haggadot from the early part of this century often depict the wicked child as a gambler or a gangster, complete with a cigar. A kibbutzHaggadah shows the wicked child as a city dweller. A communist Haggadah shows the wicked child as a business man.

In introducing the tale of the four children, the Haggadah says: “k’neged arba banim dibra Torah .” This is usually translated as: “the Torah alludes to four children.” But perhaps it could also be rendered as: “The Torah speaks against the notion that there are four children.” One illustration that I find particularly meaningful comes from the Haggadah put out by the Rabbinical Assembly, and it shows paper cutouts of four bigger people with four littler people within. One cannot tell which child is which. As I see it, this illustration interprets the Haggadah to be teaching us that we are composite people. Sometimes we are this and sometimes we are that.

Each one of us contains aspects of each child; each one of us is sometimes wise and sometimes wicked, sometimes simple and sometimes silent. We are the four children. As such we ask questions and we provide answers, different answers for different needs.

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