Mah Nishtanah: Why does this passage begin with mah (How is this night different) and not lama (Why is this night different)? In a number of places, the word lama implies a negative response, as in, “Why (lama) should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that God delivered them from Egypt,’”⁴⁰ “Why did you bring harm upon this people,”⁴¹ and, “Why should the nations say.”⁴² In each of these cases, the question implies a rhetorical question to which there is a negative answer. The word mah on the other hand implies that the question wants an explanation for the practice. Even though the wicked child’s question begins with the word mah, his question still has a negative implication. First, he wants to know the reason for the rituals but his question implies that even if he knows the reason, he is not going to perform this act. He asks, “What does this service mean to YOU,” and not to HIM. Three of the four children begin their question with the word, mah: “What are these statutes,” “What is the reason for this service,” and “What is this.” Therefore, the author of the Haggadah begins the four questions with the word mah as well. The opening words of Mah Nishtanah are an allusion (remez) to the story of Esther. “On that night, sleep deserted the king…”⁴³ This took place on the night of Passover – it inaugurated the downfall of Haman. The first letters of Mah nishtanah halailah spell the name Haman, a reminder that this is a night of redemption in many generations. According to the ways of esoteric interpretation (sod), the word mah is a reference to the sephirah of Divine Wisdom (chokhmah). The word chokhmah, comes from the words koach mah – the potential for mah.⁴⁴. Each of these different manifestations of God has a variety of different symbols and words which are outer manifestations of the inner life of God. Chokhmah, or divine wisdom is associated with the word mah. Rabbi Moshe Miller writes: “The Zohar breaks up the word chochma into two words: "koach" and "mah". "Koach" means "potential", and "mah" means "what is". Thus chochma means "the potential of what is", or "the potential to be". This aspect of chochma describes the state of chochma in relation to the sefira of keter. As chochma emanates from keter, it "appears" in an obscure and undefined state. It is only potential being. It is virtually non-being. Thus the verse states, "and chochma emerges from nothingness" (Job 28:12). In other words, it is in a state of constant flux between being and non-being - between revelation, the first point of immanent being, and non-revelation as it returns to its state of potential and merges in its source, keter. Chochma flashes in and out of existence. The Infinite Light thus becomes unified in the world of Atzilut through clothing itself first in the sefira of chochma.” The wise child then is connected to the attribute of divine wisdom. It is also connected to the Sephirahof Malchut; this night is a night of mah, Malchut.

footnotes: ⁴⁰ Exodus 32:12 ⁴¹ Exodus 5:22 ⁴² Psalms 115:2 ⁴³ Esther 6:1 ⁴⁴ There are ten Sephirot or divine manifestations in classical Kabbalah: Keter, Chochmah, Bina, Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Hod, Hadar, Yesod, Malchut or Shechinah

We can eat either leavened bread or unleavened bread: Why don’t we ask the same type of question regarding maror: “On all other nights we can eat either regular vegetables or bitter herbs…” The question is phrased differently for chametz and matzah in order to emphasize that not only don’t we eat chametz on this night but we can’t even eat enriched matzah such as egg matzah. On the eve of Passover we only eat lechem oni, the bread of the poor which is regular matzah. We therefore say, tonight we eat kulo matzah, only matzah. Maror is different since this mitzvah can be fulfilled with all different types of vegetables and herbs, as long as they taste bitter. We don’t have to say kulo maror - only bitter herbs - as we say kulo matzah – only matzah.

Mah Nishtanah: There are many questions raised by this passage. First, why don’t we ask about the other things which are different on this night, such as the four cups of wine? The fact that the children aren’t yet aware that there are other cups of wine is not an answer to this question; they also don’t know that we are going to dip twice during the Seder. All they really know about are the things that are found on the Sederplate. The Talmud says that we recite the Mah Nishtanah when we pour the second cup of wine. If that is so, then the child should have asked, “Why are we pouring a second cup of wine?” It seems that the questions are related to eating the Passover meal. We ask them when we pour the second cup of wine because drinking the wine increases one’s appetite and one’s desire for matzah⁴⁵. When the child sees the pouring of the wine, he begins to wonder about this meal and how different it is. There are other questions. We ask the four questions in their proper order!⁴⁶ In the Zevach Pesach commentary, Rabbi Isaac Abarbanel writes that the first two questions relate to slavery and the second two questions, freedom. We have two questions regarding slavery (matzah and bitter herbs) because there were two aspects of slavery in Egypt. We were enslaved both to Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. Not only did we have to serve Pharaoh, but we could not escape from Egypt and had to serve all the people of the land. But if these two questions both relate to slavery a wise child could have combined these questions: “Why on all other nights we can eat chametzor matzahas well as all types of vegetables but tonight, we eat only matzah and bitter herbs?” Similarly with the second two questions which relate to freedom, he could have said, “tonight we recline and dip twice unlike other nights.” Rabbi Eliezer Ashkenazi⁴⁷, in his commentary Ma’aseh Adonai, writes that the four questions are related to the four children. The question regarding matzah is the question of the wise child. He wants to know why this night is ‘entirely’ matzah; with most of the laws of kashrut a small amount can be disregarded but not so with chametzand matzah. Even a little chametz is forbidden.⁴⁸referred to as batel bishishim; that if the amount of treifthat falls into kosher food is one sixtieth (or less), the kashrut is still intact. Not so with hametz. Even a tiny bit of something hametzmakes the food forbidden. So tonight must be entirely matzah. Also the matzah which we eat on this night must be plain matzah, uncooked other than its being baked. It must also be the last thing we eat so that its taste remains in our mouth. The second question regarding bitter herbs is the wicked child’s question. He has no desire for something bitter so he says, “What is this service to you?” The simple child asks the third question regarding dipping twice. He only asks about that which he sees. He sees that we are going to dip twice and wonders, “What is this?” Finally, the ‘one who doesn’t know how to ask’ on his own, questions the act of leaning. We purposely lean during the Seder, something we don’t ordinarily do, in order to provoke this child to ask questions. There are two other ways of interpreting this passage in the Haggadah. First Explanation: To explain the first interpretation, we must first understand the connection between Passover and Pesach Sheni, the Second Passover.⁴⁹, is a minor Jewish observance on the 14th of Iyar in the Hebrew Calendar. The holiday is mentioned in the Torah in Numbers 9:1-14 of which the following text is a paraphrase. There are two verses in scripture which contain a significant difference. “They shall eat it roasted over fire and matzah with bitter herbs.”⁵⁰ In Parshat Baha’lotkha, “According to all the statutes of Passover, you shall eat it with matzah and bitter herbs.”⁵¹ Note the difference between these two verses. In the first one, regarding Passover, there is a separation between the matzahand bitter herbs*,*while the verse from Numbers which is related to the Second Passover, the Passover offering is separate from matzah and bitter herbs.⁵² Nachmanides explains that the first verse suggests that both the Passover offering and the matzah are each a unique and separate mitzvah on the eve of Passover. They are connected by the Hebrew letter, vav(and), which is a conjunction. This teaches us that that these two commandments are not dependent on one another while the eating of bitter herbs is dependent on the Passover offering.⁵³today. That is why we see ‘al marorim,’ with bitter herbs, and not u’marorim, ‘and bitter herbs,’ in the first verse. Someone who didn’t observe the Passover on the fifteenth of Nissan because of circumstances beyond his control can make it up one month later on the fifteenth of Iyyar. If one forgot to eat matzah on the fifteenth of Nissan (in our time), he cannot make it up this lost mitzvah. Even if the person eats matzah on the fifteenth of Iyyar he has not fulfilled this mitzvah. The Second Passover is only for making up the missed sacrifice in ancient times. He still must eat the Passover offering with matzah and bitter herbs, but this does not count for the missed commandment of eating matzah on Passover. The verse in Numbers, therefore, says, “You shall eat it WITHmatzah and bitter herbs;” the word WITH implies that while you still eat these other foods they are not considered separate mitzvot. We can now understand the statements in the Mah Nishtanah. These four questions are all related to the similarities and differences between the regular Passover and the Second Passover. That we do all these things to commemorate the Exodus is obvious to the reader. So why are they different from one another? The question is, “Why is this night so different from all other nights – even from the Second Passover?” On the Second Passover why don’t we have two commandments of matzahand the Passover offering just as we have on the first Passover, since scripture states, “According to all the laws of Passover you shall do it.” Regarding the second question, we ask, ‘If bitter herbs are only an accoutrement and not a separate mitzvah on Passover why do we eat bitter herbs at this time?’ Similarly, we ask regarding the dipping and the leaning, shouldn’t we be required to lean and dip on the Second Passover just as we do on the first Passover? Only those acts which accompany the Passover offering are prevented on the Second Passover and not the other customs. The answer to all these questions is that the first Passover is a commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt and therefore all of these practices are required as part of the celebration while the purpose of the Second Passover is to allow the person to make up for the missed sacrifice and not to commemorate the Exodus all over again. We eat unleavened bread to remind ourselves that our dough did not have time to become leavened when we left Egypt and that the matzah was the bread of affliction, a reminder of slavery. Today we eat the bitter herbs to remind ourselves of our ancestors’ bitterness in Egypt. The dipping and leaning are a commemoration of the verse, “I brought you out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” All of this only applies on the night of the fifteenth of Nissan. The Second Passover offering was not a reminder of the miracles but a ‘make-up date’ for the missed offering.

footnotes: ⁴⁵ BT Pesachim 107b ⁴⁶ In point of fact, first we lean, then we dip, then we eat matzah and then we eat the bitter herbs. ⁴⁷ Eliezer (Lazer) ben Elijah Ashkenazi (1512–December 13, 1585) was a Talmudist, rabbi, and physician. Though of a German family (according to some, the relative of Joseph Colon, he was probably born in the Levant, and received his Talmudic education under Joseph Taitazak in Salonica. Ashkenazi first became rabbi in Egypt 1538-60, probably at Fostat, where, by his learning and wealth, he became widely known. ⁴⁸ There is a concept in kashrut ⁴⁹ Pesach Sheni, Second Passover ⁵⁰ Exodus 12:8 ⁵¹ Numbers 9:12 ⁵² The word “with” appears after the word matzah in the first verse and before the word matzah in the second verse, suggesting that the role of matzah was different on the Second Passover from than on the first. The Bible tells us that those who could not celebrate the first Passover for reasons beyond their control can celebrate a ‘second Passover’ one month later. ⁵³ That is, if there is no offering we are not obligated to eat bitter herbs. But we are still obligated to eat matzah. Eating bitter herbs, then, is a rabbinic and not a scriptural commandment at our Seder

Second Explanation: The second explanation of Mah Nishtanah is related to Rabban Gamliel’s statement later in the Haggadah in which he explains why we eat the Passover offering, the matzah and the bitter herbs. Clearly, the reason for matzah is to commemorate freedom while the reason for the bitter herbs is to remind us of slavery. We eat them together with the Passover offering (according to Hillel), to include all of these remembrances together. But why do we explain them out of order? The bitter herbs should have been explained first in Rabban Gamliel’s statement and in the Haggadah. And yet we put the matzah before the bitter herbs. Why do we even need a reminder of slavery and bitterness? We don’t have such a reminder on Purim or Chanukah – also reminders of God’s miraculous redemption. Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz⁵⁴, Page 161b Isaiah Horowitz, (c. 1565 – March 24, 1630), also known as the Shelah ha-Kadosh (the holy Shelah) after the title of his best-known work, was a prominent rabbi and mystic. Horowitz was born in Prague in around 1565. He was a wealthy and active philanthropist, supporting Torah study, especially in Jerusalem. After serving as rabbi in many prominent cities in Europe, he left Frankfurt am Main - following the Fettmilch uprising - and assumed the prestigious position of rabbi of Prague. In 1620, after the death of his wife, he moved to Palestine and remarried there. He was kidnapped in Jerusalem and ransomed by the local Pasha; he then moved to Safed (1626), erstwhile home of Kabbalah. Horowitz died in Tiberias on March 24, 1630. explains that it was because of righteous women that the Jewish people were redeemed from slavery. They knew that the people of Israel could not be redeemed until they gave birth to 600,000, equal to the number of letters in the Torah that they would receive at Mount Sinai. Therefore they remained attached and devoted to their husbands even in the face of oppression. That is why scripture says, “But the more they oppressed them, the more they increased and spread out.”⁵⁵ It was through the great oppression that a great purpose came about; the people were fertile and increased, and became a mighty nation of 600,000 so that they could become worthy of receiving the Torah. Therefore, the bitter herbs actually served the purpose of making Israel worthy of receiving the Torah – this happened after the Exodus so the question of bitter herbs also follows the question regarding the matzah. The Mah Nishtanah implies this explanation. The child wants to know why we ask questions regarding freedom first before we ask questions about slavery. After all, matzah is a symbol of freedom while matzah and dipping are symbols of slavery. The dipping in charoset is a reminder of the mortar with which they made the bricks while leaning is a symbol of freedom. Even though Don Isaac Abarbanel suggested that matzah is a symbol of slavery and we call it the bread of affliction, in reality it is a symbol of freedom; that is why we are supposed to lean when we eat the matzah. There is also an association of freedom with bitter herbs, thus while we don’t lean when we eat the bitter herbs, it is permissible to do so!

footnotes: ⁵⁴ Sh’nei Luchot HaBerit ⁵⁵ Exodus 1:12