Question 16: What are this year's seder table questions?

Why is this night different from all other nights?

Every Passover we ask, and every Passover we answer— not directly, mind you, but through a windy multigenerational retelling of a story presented as fact that may or may not have happened at all. And so the telling of the story becomes its own character in the story, and we the storytellers are in the tale and outside it all at once. We ask the questions and we don’t always know the answers, and even when we do we aren’t always sure why those are the answers.

But there are a lot of questions that could (and perhaps should) come up at seder. With just a few moments before Shabbat, and Pesach swiftly on its tail, this post is an opportunity to lift up four more questions for this year . Maybe you’ll bring one to your seder. Maybe you’ll just think about one yourself.

1) Are we taking the actions of today’s would-be pharaohs seriously? If yes, how are we taking care of ourselves and our communities? If no, what are we afraid of?

2) How do we celebrate our people’s journey to freedom when 59 Israeli hostages are held in Gaza by Hamas and countless Palestinians are held in Gaza by Israel?

3) What does it actually mean to invite all who are hungry to come and eat this Passover? What are we doing in the face of deep economic turmoil to ensure that others have sufficient food?

4) As we consider the Four Children— wise, wicked, simple, and unable to ask—in what ways are we each of them? Which questions do we want all the answers to in enough detail to make part of our lives? Which questions do we not want to ask directly and therefore take some responsibility for? Which questions do we wish were just an easy yes or no? And which questions are we unable or unwilling to voice?

Shabbat Shalom. Chag Sameach. Take care of each other. We only get free together.