Ma Nishtana () is a section at the beginning of the Passover

Haggadah The Haggadah (, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a foundational Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table fulfills the mitzvah incumbent on every Jew to reco ...

known as The Four Kushiyot, The Four Questions or "Why is this night different from all other nights?", traditionally asked via song by the youngest capable child attending

Passover Seder The Passover Seder is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar (i.e., at the start of the 15th; a Hebrew d ...

. The questions are included in the

haggadah The Haggadah (, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a foundational Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table fulfills the mitzvah incumbent on every Jew to reco ...

as part of the Maggid (מגיד) section.

Origins

The questions originate in the

Mishna The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

Pesachim Pesachim (, lit. "Paschal lambs" or "Passovers"), also spelled Pesahim, is the third tractate of '' Seder Moed'' ("Order of Festivals") of the Mishnah and of the Talmud. The tractate discusses the topics related to the Jewish holiday of Passove ...

10:4, but are quoted differently in the

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

s. The Jerusalem Talmud only records three questions; why foods are dipped twice as opposed to once, why

matzah Matzah, matzo, or maẓẓah ('','' : matzot or Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashk. matzos) is an Unleavened bread, unleavened flatbread that is part of Jewish cuisine and forms an integral element of the Passover festival, during which ''chametz'' (lea ...

is eaten, and why the meat sacrifice eaten is exclusively roasted. (The last question is a reference to the paschal sacrifice which was fire-roasted). The Babylonian Talmud quotes four questions; why matzah is eaten, why

maror ''Maror'' ( ''mārōr'') are the bitter herbs eaten at the Passover Seder in keeping with the biblical commandment "with bitter herbs they shall eat it." ( Exodus 12:8). The Maror is one of the symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder pla ...

is eaten, why meat that is eaten is exclusively roasted, and why food is dipped twice. The version in the Jerusalem Talmud is also the one most commonly found in manuscripts. As the paschal sacrifice was not eaten after the

destruction of the temple Destruction may refer to: Concepts * Destruktion, a term from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger * Destructive narcissism, a pathological form of narcissism * Self-destructive behaviour, a widely used phrase that ''conceptualises'' certain kin ...

, the question about the meat was dropped. The

Rambam Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ag ...

and

Saadia Gaon Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, Geonim, gaon, Jews, Jewish philosopher, and exegesis, exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate. Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic ...

both add a new question to the liturgy to replace it: "why do we recline on this night?" Ultimately, the question of reclining was maintained, in part to create a parallelism between the number of questions and the other occurrences of the number four in the hagaddah. Shmuel and

Ze'ev Safrai Ze'ev Safrai (; born 1948, Jerusalem) is an Israeli Professor in the Department for Israel Studies in Bar Ilan University, as well as an author, lecturer and researcher of Israel in the Second Temple period, Second Temple era. His main project is ...

point out that many early versions of the Haggadah from Genizah manuscripts reflect the versions of the Jerusalem Talmud and other sources from the Land of Israel, including Ma Nishtana.

Contemporary tunes

Traditionally, ''Ma Nishtana'' is recited in the chant form called the major ''lern-steiger'' ("study mode" – a chant used for reciting lessons from the Talmud or Mishnah). One of the current tunes widely used for the Ma Nishtana was written by Ephraim Abileah in 1936 as part of his oratorio "Chag Ha-Cherut".

Text

The following text is that which is recorded in the original printed Haggadah.

Alternate order

In the

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

tradition, the order is as follows: 1. Eating matzah 2. Eating bitter herbs 3. Dipping the food 4. Reclining. The Ashkenazi communities also omit the use of the word "ushotin", which means "to drink".

History

A fifth question which is present in the mishnah has been removed by later authorities due to its inapplicability after the

destruction of the Second Temple The siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), a major rebellion against Roman rule in the province of Judaea. Led by Titus, Roman forces besieged the Jewish capital, which had become ...

Answers

The answers to the four questions (and the historic fifth question) are: # We eat only matzah because our ancestors could not wait for their breads to rise when they were fleeing slavery in Egypt, and so they were flat when they came out of the oven. # We eat only Maror, a bitter herb, to remind us of the bitterness of slavery that our ancestors endured while in Egypt. # The first dip, green vegetables in salt water, symbolizes the replacing of our tears with gratitude, and the second dip, Maror in

Charoset ''Charoset'' is a sweet, dark-colored mixture of finely chopped fruits and nuts eaten at the Passover Seder. According to the Talmud, its color and texture are meant to recall mortar (or mud used to make adobe bricks), which the Israelites ...

, symbolizes the sweetening of our burden of bitterness and suffering. # We recline at the Seder table because in ancient times, a person who reclined at a meal was a free person, while slaves and servants stood. # We eat only roasted meat because that is how the Pesach/Passover lamb is prepared during sacrifice in the Temple at Jerusalem. Some of these answers are stated over the course of the Seder.

Contemporary use

The four questions are traditionally asked by the youngest person at the table that is able to do so. Much of the seder is designed to fulfill the biblical obligation to tell the story to one's children,Exodus, 13:8 and many of the customs that have developed around the Four Questions are designed to pique a child's curiosity about what is happening in order to hold their attention.

References

External links

Listen to the Ma Nishtana online
* Rabbi

Eliezer Melamed Eliezer Melamed (; born 28 June 1961) is an Israeli religious-Zionist rabbi, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Bracha, the rabbi of the settlement Har Bracha, and the author of '' Peninei Halakha'', a series of '' Halakhic'' works. Biography ...

The Text of "Ma Nishtana"
in the book

Peninei Halakha Eliezer Melamed (; born 28 June 1961) is an Israeli religious-Zionist rabbi, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Bracha, the rabbi of the settlement Har Bracha, and the author of '' Peninei Halakha'', a series of '' Halakhic'' works. Biography ...

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