Hacham mah hu omer? What does the wise child ask? In order to understand the wise child’s question and answer, we must first understand the three categories of laws in this passage: (edut) testimonies, (chukkim) statutes and (mishpatim) judgments. Testimonies (edut) are those practices which testify to the haste with which the redemption took place, such as the matzah which did not have time to rise because the Israelites left so quickly from Egypt. The Passover offering is one of the statutes (chukkim); the Torah says, “This is the statute of the pesach offering.” Judgment would apply to procedural rulings such as which part of the Passover meal should be consumed last. The wise child, then, asks about all the types of laws as well as the protocol which applies to them. In our time, when there is no Passover sacrifice and we eat the matzah first, we are left to wonder if it is still necessary to eat a little more matzah at the end of the meal as well. Similarly, in the time of the Temple, one might wonder if it is still necessary to eat a little bit of the Passover offering at the end of the meal since we have already consumed a whole meal and are no longer hungry. The mishpatim, the judgments, answer the question in each of these cases – we are still obligated to eat the matzah (in our time) and the pesach offering (in the time of the Temple). But if this is the meaning of the three terms, then the question in the Torah should have been phrased, “What are the judgments of these testimonies and statutes,” since the essence of the question was the procedural rulings for each of the statutes and testimonies. The wise child put the mishpatim last in order to show us that he understood that his question was about the final part of the Seder meal, either for the matzah (afikomen) or the pesach offering. He then answers them in their proper order. So first we ask about the matzah since it is a reminder of the Passover offering. Since the pesach offering had to be eaten when the celebrant was no longer hungry, so too the last bits of matzah which we call the afikomen had to be eaten at the end of the meal when the celebrant was no longer hungry, we observe the same law for both of them – we have them at the end of the meal. The Mishnah tells us, “One may not add afikomen after the pesach offering,” it is called the afikomen which means Afiku minei metikah, “Bring out all types of sweets.” We do so that the taste of the final matzah/pesach will remain in our mouth all night. And then we continue to tell the story of the Exodus all night long.