HAGGADAH
ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC IMAGES OF THE PESACH
Seder (if not the most iconic image) is of
a young child, who slowly rises from
where he sits until he reaches a standing
position, either on top of or next to his
chair, facing all of the guests who are
seated around the Seder table. Then (albeit nervously) he sings the words of the
Mah Nishtana, aka The Four Questions,
which focus on some of the differences in
our behaviour that will be noticed
throughout the course of the Seder meal:
eating only matzah; eating maror; dipping twice; and leaning while eating and
drinking.1
Although most people have become
accustomed to having a young (or even
the youngest) child ask The Four Questions of the Mah Nishtana2 (and certainly shouldn’t change from doing so!)
Rabbi Avraham Danzig, z”l, (aka the
Chayei Adam, after the title of his halachic work of that name) points out in
Toldos Adam (his commentary on the
Haggadah) that, although a child is, in
fact, meant to ask “mah nishtana” at
the very point in the Seder that we’ve
become accustomed to having a child do
so, the child was not, however, meant
to be the one asking The Four Questions! In fact, Rabbi Danzig explains
that, at the point in the Seder where
The Four Questions of the Mah Nishtana are meant to be asked, it would not
even be possible for a child to ask such
questions, as most of the things being
asked about have yet to take place at
the Seder!
38 JEWISH LIFE
ISSUE 82
PHOTOGRAPH: ILAN OSSENDRYVER
insights
Ummm…Dad…aren’t you
forgetting something?
I BY ROBERT SUSSMAN