Personal and communal growth begins with questioning. We observe the status quo, we note shortcomings, we envision opportunities and we ask, “Why is this so, and what can we do to change?” Becoming requires asking.
For this reason, on Passover eve, as we re-experience our becoming a free, godly people, questioning is vital. By ritualizing the recitation of the “Mah Nishtana” (Four Questions) at the Seder start, the authors of the Hagadah are setting the querying tone of the evening. And by giving voice to the questions of the “Four Sons,” the Hagadah affirms questioning as the route to religious development.

Asking questions on Passover is, however, not only a means to achieving growth, but also an essential expression of our freedom. On Passover, we drink four cups of wine, we eat matzah, we recline, and we ask questions to demonstrate our liberty. Every genuine question starts with the premise that there are options, multiple possibilities. Those who are enslaved physically are denied options; those who are enslaved mentally are incapable of imagining possibilities. Only free people are inquisitive.

A question is also an enormously potent liberating force. When millions of oppressed people ask “why,” they can rock the most intransigent of dictatorships. When communities and individuals ask “what” and “how,” they can transform themselves and the world around them. This Passover let us relish our freedom, thank the Almighty for our liberty, and remember to ask.