Four Questions at the Pesach Seder
Teach About Matzoh, Maror, Salt Water, and the Meaning of Passover
Apr 15, 2009
Each year at the Passover meal or seder, the youngest person present reads the four questions, inviting Jews around the world to discuss the meaning of Passover and the traditional foods and symbols of the holiday.
First it's asked, "Why is this night different from all other nights?" The four questions follow, pointing out the things that make Passover different from other nights of the year and discussing their significance.
First Question: Matzoh or Matzah
The first question asks, "Why is it that on all other nights of the year, we eat bread or matzoh, but on this night only matzoh?"
Matzoh, pronounced "mutt-zuh," is the name of the flat, cracker-like bread eaten during Passover. Sometimes spelled matzah, it is eaten for the entire eight days of Passover or Pesach in place of bread, crackers, and other foods that rise – which are forbidden during Passover.
Matzoh is used during Passover as a symbol of the unleavened bread that the Jews took with them when they left Egypt in a rush, with no time for their uncooked bread to rise. Modern Jews avoid bread, flour, yeast, and almost all grains and beans during Passover, in memory of this unleavened bread and the hurry to leave Egypt.
Second Question: Maror or Bitter Herbs
The second question is, "Why is it that on all other nights we eat all kinds of herbs, but on this night we eat maror, bitter herbs?"
The bitter herbs remind Jews of the bitterness their ancestors suffered in slavery under the Egyptians. This bitterness makes freedom even more powerful and gives greater appreciation of the difference between modern lives and the lives of Jewish ancestors who were slaves.
Third Question: Salt Water and Charoset
The third question says, "Why is it that on all other nights, we don't dip our herbs at all, but on this night we dip them twice?"
The herbs are traditionally dipped twice, first in charoset (pronounced Harr-oh-sett) and later in salt water.
Charoset is a mixture of apples, nuts, wine (or grape juice) and honey, meant to resemble the bricks made by Jewish slaves who built the Egyptian pyramids. The salt water symbolizes the tears of the slaves, while the herbs, usually parsley, are a symbol of spring and hope.
Fourth Question: Reclining
The fourth question asks, "Why is it that on all other nights we may eat sitting or reclining, but on this night we recline?"
Although not everyone follows this Passover custom, it is traditional to use an extra cushion on the back of each person's seat so they can relax and recline in the freedom Moses and other Jewish ancestors won for modern day people.
It is this spirit of liberation that is most important about Passover and that sets this holiday apart – the freedom to choose how you live, what you do for a living, and who you'll do it with.
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