There are four questions that are traditionally asked as part of the Seder meal. There used to be three but the fourth one was added after the destruction of the temple. We can find at least four areas of scripture where we are to teach our children about the Passover redemption: Exodus 12:26, Exodus 13:14, Deuteronomy 6:20, and Exodus 13:8.
Why Is This Night Different From Other Nights? Answer: God has commanded this. Matzo is sometimes known as the bread of our affliction (Exodus 12:20). The missing leaven can represent sin that should be missing from our lives.
Answer: To remember the bitterness of slavery (Exodus 2:23).
Answer: In its early days the herbs were dipped (eaten) once at the beginning of the Seder, right after the Kiddush, to remember the dipping of the hyssop in blood. The second dipping referred to the maror, the bitter herbs, which were eaten with the Passover Lamb.
Answer: Because now we are free to come to God (Exodus 3:18, Galatians 5:1). We now have freedom to enjoy our meals and no longer have to rush through our dinner as slaves may have had to.
In Luke 22:14, we find Jesus and the disciples reclining at the table.
The four questions are also associated with four different kinds of sons: the wise son, the wicked son, and the simple son (fool). The fourth son is one who cannot or wishes not to ask a question at all.
Sometimes people try to associate the four questions with the four groups that were antagonistic to Rabbinical Judaism.
1) Hellenism: This was the wise son, because he was willing to follow rabbinical Judaism, to a limited degree.
2) Christianity: This was the bad son, because he claimed Messiah had come.
3) Sadducees: This was the simple son, because he only believed in the first five books of Moses and not the prophets.
4) Essenes: This was the rebellious son. He would not ask any questions at all, because he wanted nothing to do with the Pharisees and the way they ran the Temple.
There is a sequence spelled out in the four questions.
1) Sin (leaven in bread that is forbidden).
2) Suffering (the bitterness of the herb).
3) Repentance (the blood of the lamb is an acceptable substitute offering).
4) Redemption (We are now free to eat like men who are not slaves).
Some have found a pattern for the four sons in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 12.
12:13-17 A Pharisee asks a question about taxes like a wise son might ask.
12:18-27 A Sadducee who doesn't believe in resurrection mockingly asks about life after death as a wicked son might.
12:28-34 A simple scribe tries to find out how to conduct himself as a simple son might.
12:35-37 No one asks any questions, but Jesus teaches anyway in the temple.
It is a common practice for these questions to be sung in Hebrew by the youngest child at the table who is capable of doing so.
Click Here To Listen To The Traditional Four Questions Tune.
View the Four Questions In Hebrew
Read more about The Holiday Of Passover.
