Mah Nishtana: What is the significance of each of the four questions?

1. On all other nights we do not even dip once, on this night we dip twice – It is the practice of the rich to dip vegetables in some type of liquid at the beginning of their meal; if we wanted to make this meal different we only needed to dip once to show that we are like the rich. So why is it necessary for us to dip twice?
2. On all other nights we eat leavened and unleavened bread, on this night entirely unleavened bread – On other nights we can eat whatever we wish, whether it is hametz, leavened or matzah, unleavened bread; we may eat one or both of them. Why only this night do we eat only matzah. It would have been appropriate to eat both of them on this night; the matzah would have been a reminder of the haste with which we left Egypt. SO why on this night do we eat ONLY matzah?
3. At other times we eat any vegetables we want; why on this night bitter herbs? Usually we only eat bitter herbs as a medicinal substance for healing. Why on a night associated with great miracles are we required to eat bitter herbs? It should have been the other way around – at other times we eat bitter herbs but tonight when we celebrate a miracle we don’t have a reason to eat bitter herbs that reminds us of our bitterness.
4. On all other nights we eat and drink either leaning or sitting; on this night all of us lean. On other nights people are permitted to eat either leaning or sitting, each however he sees fit. Why is it an obligation for all of us to lean when we drink wine and eat matzah? There is also a distinction in the type of language which is used in the second and the fourth questions. While the two questions contain contrasts, in the second question we use the conjunctive (“u”), which in this case means “or,” “hametz or matzah” while the fourth question is written using the expression bein…u’vein, (either …or), ‘either sitting or leaning.’ What is the significance of this distinction? How is the custom of eating matzah different from the practice of reclining? And why are these two questions written differently from one another? The reason for the difference in language has to do with the object of the question. The focus of the second question is on the food (and not on the one who does the eating) while the focus of the fourth question is the one who performs the act (and not the act). On a regular evening, people will eat leavened or unleavened bread with their meal, whichever they are served. Therefore we say, “chametz or matzah.” Tonight, however, they are only served (kulo) only matzah. Leaning (at a meal) is different. Normally people will sit for part of the meal and lean for part of the meal. The question, therefore, is formulated differently. Bein u’vein implies both X and Y, while “u” implies either/or – either one or the other. We ask why on other nights can a person both lean and sit, while on this night he is obligated specifically to lean when he drinks wine and eats matzah. Leavened and unleavened bread, on the other hand, tend not to be present at the same meal since one will usually serve one or the other and not both. Tonight, however, is different since we only serve unleavened bread. There is an interesting reason why we say kulanu misubin, “all of us lean,” in the fourth question. At first glance the word kulanu, all of us, would appear to be superfluous. The root word kulo appears in both the second and fourth questions. Unlike the second question, however, in which we say that we eat entirely kulo matzah, we don’t really need to point out that all of us kulanu lean on this night. In the fourth question the word kulanu is an allusion to the story of the Exodus. When the tenth plague struck Egypt, the Egyptians were terrified. They pressed the Israelites to leave Egypt because they thought their lives were endangered: The Egyptians were urgent upon the people to send them out in haste, for they said: “Kulanu metim, all of us are dead!” Just as they thought they were all doomed to die, so all of us recline at the Seder because all of us were redeemed from slavery.