A Taste of Torah in Honor of Shabbat
by Rabbi Avi Weiss

Shabbat First Day of Pesach
15-16 Nisan 5758, April 10-12, 1998

What is the significance of so many questions in the Haggadah - especially the mah nishtanah, why is this night different?

Rabbi Menachem Liebtag argues that mah nishtanah echoes the words in the Torah:   "If your child asks you…what are these…laws which the Lord…has
commanded you…you shall say…we were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt and the Lord took us out…with a mighty hand."  (Deuteronomy 6:20, 21)  The text in the
Haggadah parallels this format.  It starts as the Torah does with a question asked by children and then begins its response with the very words of the Torah:  "we were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt. "

Another idea comes to mind.  Although written as questions, the mah nishtanah can be viewed as a declarative statement.  After all, the first two questions
deal with matzah and marror (bitter herbs), symbols of servitude, while the next two deal with dipping  foods and reclining while eating, symbols of freedom.  This teaches Am Yisrael that the message of Egypt is never to
despair.  After oppression comes redemption, day follows night, light disperses darkness. 

But for me, the best approach is the realization that the pathway to learning is to question.  It is told that Isidor I. Rabi, a Nobel prize winner in physics, was once asked:  "Why did you become a scientist?"  He responded, "My
mother made me a scientist without ever intending it.  Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school:  'Nu?  Did you learn anything today?'   But not my mother.  She always asked me a different
question.  'Izzy, '  she would say, 'did you ask a good question today?'   That difference--asking good questions--made me become a scientist."   (Donald
Sheff, letter to the New York Times, January 19, 1988.)   

In my early Yeshiva years, my rebbeim (rabbis) would tell me,"Fraigt nicht, don't ask questions." Growing older, I've come to understand that the reverse is true: "Foon ah kasha ken mir nicht shtarben, no one has ever died from a question."   In my rabbinate I have learned that rabbis die when no questions are asked of them.   In fact, real growth comes from questions.  It has often been said that 80% of the answer lies in the question.

Hence, the seder begins with questions. Rabbi Joel Cohen suggests that perhaps not coincidentally, the seder concludes with questions as well:  "Who knows
One (God)? Who knows two (the tablets)?"  Having responded to the children's questions during the seder, we in turn conclude the evening by asking them-"have you learned the message well?"

One more thought. Notwithstanding the custom for the youngest at the seder to ask the mah nishtanah, it ought be pointed out that there is no person on the face of the earth who is not a child.  In the end, all of us ought always ask questions. That's the test of being alive, of growing, of feeling the splendor and greatness of God's magnificent creation.

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A Special Message From Rabbi Avi Weiss

Passover on the Eve of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the State of Israel

Excerpted from Shabbat Hagadol Discourse
8, Nissan 5758-April 4, 1998
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SHABBAT SHALOM
&
Chag Sameach

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