Passover: The Holiday of Questions

by Rabbi Renee Bauer

Asking questions and having heated discussions is a valued part of Jewish tradition. The Passover seder is a place in the tradition where questions are ritualized. The four questions are a centerpiece of the seder ritual and the tale of the four children is a discussion of how questions are asked and answered.

Dr. Susan Sered, director of the Religion, Health and Healing Initiative at Harvard University’s Center for the Study of World Religions, in The Women’s Seder Sourcebook: Rituals & Readings for Use at the Passover Seder explains how the act of question is part of the journey from slavery to freedom. She writes:

The ability to honestly question the staus quo is one of the defining elements of
freedom. Indeed, the danger of patriarchy - or of other oppressive social
hierarchies - is not only its overt violence and dehumanization but also that it
threatens to make the inequality on which it is based a part of each individual’s
consciousness. Oppression is victorious when it becomes so taken for granted that
criticisms does not need to actively suppressed. No one even thinks of asking
“why” or “how” or “who benefits from this arrangement” or “are there other ways
in which we can live?”…

Questioning is at the heart of the seder because it is one of the keys to freedom. However, do we ask real questions at the Passover seder? Or do we go through a set of rituals and proscribed questions? Sered argues that

The Passover seder (literally, order), one of the most highly ritualized events in
Jewish life, presents a fine opportunity for examining the process and meanings of
the “taken for grantedness” of our lives and culture. Every aspect of the seder -
the food, the style of seating, the songs and even the questions that are asked is
structured and ceremonial. While the traditional haggadah includes excerpts for the
intellectual tradition of the rabbinic debate and commentary, the power of the
seder for many of us lies in the evocative smell of matzah ball soup, the sight of a
beautiful seder plate or of a matzah cover hand-painted by a young family
member, rousing melodies such as Dayeinu, the special taste of horseradish and
charoset, and distinctive tactile experiences like dipping one’s finger into a glass
of wine. The annual repetition of these embodied acts re-creates a sense of order,
of structure of cosmic “rightness.” Even the questioning that takes place at the
seder is ritualized. Children memorize and recite questions composed centuries
ago, often not understanding what they ask or, alternatively, already knowing the
answers. (The Women’s Seder Sourcebook pg. 95-96)

How true is this description! The four questions, at most of our sedarim, have become a nice song to sing, not the opening for discussions about oppression and freedom. In an attempt to motivate us to bring the tradition of questioning back to the seder table, I invite you to join me on Shabbat morning March 6 after services and Kiddush (from approximately 12:30-1:30) for a study session on the sources of the questions in the Haggadah. I hope that gaining an understanding of the intention of the questions which appear in our Haggadah will empower each us to enliven and deepen our sedarim this year.

Hag Pesach Sameach,
Rabbi Renée