I converted to Judaism when I was 28, so I never had the childhood experience of asking the Four Questions at seder.
On the first night of Passover (last Wednesday night) at my in-laws this year, it was all adults, so I was the second-youngest one there. Mr. Neville’s younger brother was the youngest- he’s 10 months younger than me. I asked him if I could do the Four Questions instead of him, and he said OK.
I managed to get the pronunciation right, and even to sort of sing them to the right tune (I’m tone-deaf, so singing anything to the right tune is a challenge).
Really, it’s a great feeling. A good Seder-- with your family all around you, everybody chipping in his little bit of the reading, sharing stories–and love. Kinda makes you feel all happy inside. …
It’s been a while since I was only married into a Jewish family and divorced years ago…
But, basically, it’s almost like a play. You are telling the story of passover through answering the questions of the youngest child. I don’t remember the exact questions, but they were along the lines of “Why is today special?” “Why are we eating bitter herbs?” “Why is the bread unleavened?”
I’m sure someone will be along with a more accurate answer.
I chose to have a seder for my roommate and friends. I am the head of household as I have lived here longest, so I read.
Little did I know that when everyone showed up… whoops I am the youngest at 25. We stuck with tradition, It was rather amusing to everyone to have me ask and answer the questions.
That’s the first hit when I googled, there are better versions online, I’m sure.
As the youngest child, and nearly the youngest of my cousins, I asked the 4 questions for nearly two decades. I still sometimes get the honor. I like to think of it as my part of the service. ;j
There’s a joke about a rabbi who was to be knighted. It involves the Hebrew for “why is this night different from all other nights?” and is absolutely hilarious if you include the Hebrew. Problem is, I don’t know the Hebrew. Could someone give the questions in Hebrew?
The Chief Rabbi of England is to be knighted for his services to Judaic scholarship and religious life. Now, each person who is knighted has to kneel before the Queen and recite a complicated Latin passage swearing fealty to her. The rabbi has memorized this passage, but he has a bit of stage fright about it.
At the glittering ceremony, surrounded by lords and and ladies and the best and brightest of the realm, his stage fright only grows as he sees each of the newly minted knights and dames, one by one, kneel before the Queen and recite their Latin passage.
Finally it’s his turn. He kneels before the Queen, and finds to his horror that he cannot remember even a single word of the Latin passage! He’s desperately trying to recall it. With all eyes on him, in a last desperate frenzy he reaches for the first foreign language phrase he can recall, and says, “Mah nishtanah hah lahylah hah zeh mi kol hah layloht?”
The Queen, puzzled, looks at an advisor and says, “Why is this knight different from all the other knights?”
The Hebrew for “why is this night different from all other nights?” is the sentence I posted above: Mah nishtanah hah lahylah hah zeh mi kol hah layloht?
I don’t think I can do the rest of the four questions song in Hebrew well enough to type it out.
Analogue Skywalker, I had the same situation this year. I’m the oldest of my generation at home, so I haven’t said them in years, but I was the youngest one there.
Matzah = unleavened bread made of only flour and water. Can also be spelled matza, matzo, or matzoh, and I’ve even seen it spelled mazza.
Maror = bitter herbs, often raw horseradish (mmmmm… horseradish )
The second question is a little misleading- we in fact eat another vegetable as part of the seder (karpas, a green vegetable, often parsley), and the festive meal can and usually does include vegetables other than bitter herbs.
We often don’t really eat reclining at seders, either- there’s not enough room around many people’s tables for that, nor do they have reclining couches like you see in I, Claudius or other shows about Rome. What is often done is that the leader of the seder has a pillow in his or her chair- thus symbolically reclining. I’ve never been to a seder where people actually did recline.
Yes, that’s right. I happened to be the second youngest at this particular seder, and begged the honor off of my brother in law, who was the youngest.
Not in most traditional Haggadot (the book you read at the seder). Usually, after the Four Questions, you go into the telling of the story of the Exodus. The questions get answered in a sort of roundabout, indirect way.
Some modern Haggadot do have the answers to the questions right after they are asked. Different families do their seders differently.
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