Whadaya know? #BlogExodus

One of my favorite parts of the Seder is the Four Questions.
This year, I've been working hard with Sam to help him learn them so he can have his big moment. I had to convince Yael that she could wait until next year and then she would have her turn.

We've added the following section to our seder before the Four Questions. I no longer have the source, but I didn't write this.

The eldest reads:

Nobel Prize winning physicist Isador Isaac Rabi's mother did not ask him: “What did you learn in school today?” each day. She asked him: “Did you ask a good question today?”

The oldest teenager reads:

Why do the same questions get asked each year? I probably have more questions than the youngest, why does a child ask the questions? How come we ask these questions, but you rarely give a straight answer?

The leader reads:

Questioning is a sign of freedom, and so we begin with questions.

To ritualize only one answer would be to deny that there can be many, often conflicting answers. To think that life is only black and white, or wine and Maror, bitter or sweet, or even that the cup is half empty or half full is to be enslaved to simplicity.

Each of us feels the challenge to search or our own answers. The ability to question is only the first stage of freedom. The search for answers is the next.

Does every question have an answer? Is the ability to function without having all the answers one more stage of liberation? Can we be enslaved to an obsessive search for the answer?

Do you have the answer?

What do you think about the Four Questions? Who asks them in your family? It's hard when there aren't any kids present, but someone has to ask the questions no matter how old the participants, since they are the basis for the whole Seder!