Ask Good Questions!

Rabbi Aaron Benson is sharing some items from his Passover "to do" list. See below for his post on the four questions.

In some haggadah I once read there was a comment in the section on the Four Questions in which a famous Jewish scientist was quoted about how he got his start in his profession. He said that it was because when he got home from school every day, his father didn't ask him what he had learned in school, rather his father asked him, "did you ask a good question today?"

I loved this idea and it has become part of my routine with my boys every morning, I send them out the door to school with the charge "ask good questions!"  While they don't always willingly tell me about the good questions they asked when they get home in the afternoon, they are certain to remind me to tell them to ask good questions if by chance I don't say it in the morning so I feel like that's something.

But the emphasis, the priority, on asking good questions is a distinctly Jewish one, and quite noble.  Look at the section on the four questions - they aren't exactly questions.  And they don't exactly get answered - why is that?

Beyond this, a Passover Seder should be full of questions - who are the modern-day parallels to the people in the story?  What parts do we like or not like?  Anyone learn a new tune to an old passage in the haggadah?  Any new dishes being served?  Why must the gefilte fish have a little slice of carrot on it?  

Our Holiday of Freedom is very much a Holiday of Questions and its spirit should go with us throughout the rest of the year.