The Fifth Question (Shabbat HaGadol 5774, April 11, 2014)
For most children growing up with Judaism, reciting the Four Questions is a rite of passage. After weeks of practice and encouragement, all eyes are upon the child who can recite the four parts of really one question, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The original set of four questions, didn’t include the question about reclining. It was added after the question about the Passover sacrifice was removed, after the destruction of the temple.
When Israel was a young and emerging country fought for by idealists, socialists, refugees, and Holocaust survivors, Kibbutz Ein Harod, one of my favorite locations in the Galilee, changed their haggadot and asked four different questions than the traditional ones in our haggadah:
Why do people all over the world hate Jews?
When will the Jews return to their land?
When will our land become a fertile garden?
When will there be peace and brotherhood world over?
And for as long as I can remember, the haggadah that I put together and have revised over the years asks,
“Do you have a fifth question you would like to ask?
A flyer from MAZON: A Jewish response to hunger, which also appears on their website, asks us all to incorporate a fifth question at our seders this year:
Why on this night are millions of people still going hungry?
1 out of every 6 Americans is hungry, about 50 million Americans. 1 out of every 5 Israelis. We read in the Washington Post yesterday that there are a growing number of college students who are from poor families who are going hungry all week in order to pay their expenses. Hunger is the silent shame of our nation.
As part of our seder we say, “All who are hungry come and eat.” Yet, the modern form of slavery in our midst is widespread hunger, the most tragic of which is the hunger of the children of our world, including children right here in America who often only have school food to fill their bellies each day- there are over 16 million hungry children in this the wealthiest country in the world.
“All who are hungry, come and eat.”
Perhaps the fifth question needs to be, “How can we honestly say that line in our seder any more, when society has abandoned the basic right to eat for every human being?
The questions we ask reveal so much about us as human beings. The fifth question you might ask has a great deal to do with what you value and what is important to you.
“Why on this night, are there Jews not having a seder?”
This question is the plague of my Jewish heart. When did it become okay to ignore the Jewish calendar and Jewish obligation? When did we Jews become so free, so comfortable, and so assimilated, that some Jews just choose not to practice Judaism any more or make it a priority? In a world where we have everything, how can we not give up bread and chametz for seven days once a year?
But, you might have other questions:
“Why on this night are families not making an effort to be together for seder?”
“Why on this night are there seders with chicken soup, but no haggadah, where the story of our history is not being told to the next generation?”
“Why on this night are there fewer Jewish children being born, and being educated Jewishly, than a generation or two ago?”
“Why on this night, are there Jews living in Israel and around the globe still fearful of terrorism and anti-Semitism?” Why are there still people plotting our destruction?”
“Why on this night, is the State of Israel not living in a secured peace?”
“Why on this night are there soldiers far from home fighting in war zones unable to attend their families’ seders?”
“Why on this night are there Jews who do not consider us Jews, even though we share the same Torah and the same sacred story?”
Or we might ask more global questions:
“Why on this night are there people who are enslaved, trafficked, and exploited in a world filled with possibilities and opportunities?”
“ Why do so many people of our world live on less than $2 a day? Why are there still working poor?”
“Do you have a fifth question you might ask at your seder?”
What does that question reveal about you? about your Judaism? About your priorities?
This Passover, open up your seder discussion to the fifth question, and then, when you open the door for Elijah ask the group to see if there are solutions to the questions that were raised.
The four questions are just a beginning. Let us open our minds and our homes to the injustice and slavery still in our world, and then let us use our tables to brainstorm and embrace solutions to these widespread plagues.
Shabbat Shalom. Happy Passover.