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Four Questions
Contributed by MK Williams

  • TOP HAGGADAHS FOR 2023

(Here the son asks)

Father, I wish to ask you four questions:

Ma nishtana, how are we worse off than Shmuel the manufacturer, from Meir the banker, from Zarah the moneylender, from Reb Turdus the Rabbi?

They do nothing and have food and drink, both by day and night a hundred times over, and we toil with all our strength the entire day, and at night we don't have even a meal, as well?

They have great castles, shown off and drubbed up with all the trappings, beautiful rooms standing unbelievably empty-and we lie stuck together in a hole and they even want to throw us out of there?

They do nothing and wear the most expensive clothes-and we toil like own and have not a shirt on our bodies?

They eat a hearty dinner, drink a full-bodied glass of wine and go to sleep in a spacious warm bed and “Everything goes well among us” and we lay ourselves down in a tiny corner on a straw mattress so that we can soon awaken to work?

Father, give me a reason for all four of my questions!

(The father considers a while. He scratches the back of his neck. Then he answers.)

The reason, my child, is this:

For Pharaoh did we toil in Egypt.

Servitors, slaves were we by Pharaoh, and we mashed clay, baked bricked, build towns, and toiled like oxen. And then we had a G-d who took pity on the unfortunate, so that he helped us by freeing us from slavery. Today, however, today G-d sides with the rich, as if they alone had a G-d, as if in order to have a G-d, people must pay in coin. And from where can we, poor workers, take money? Today we can't count on G-d to free us, today we have over us thousands of Pharaohs who torment us, who take our strength and to whom we are sold-our sons and the sons of our sons. We must now remember with love and longing and speak of it both day and night to our children and children's children.

And the more a man tells of the coming forth from Egypt, the more is he to be praised.

Speak aloud of Shmuel the manufacturer, aloud of Meir the banker, Zarah the moneylender, Turdus the Rabbi, as these very kind dear people sit together, drink a glass of good wine and also contemplate the exodus from Egypt, the story which, although it is clear and simple. They don't like at all. Does it mean, they say, that slaves create a union and free themselves? What in the world, then, will become of us? No, the clear and simple meaning is no use to us. We must search for another interpretation. We must never let ourselves understand the clear and simple meaning. Upon which Reb Shmuel stands up and says “ The days of your life imply but days. ” Your whole life shall be of the night, by day you shall be mine, my servitors, my slaves, you shall work for me in the factory and besmirch yourselves. Reb Turdus the Rabbi kneels, turns up his eyes to Heaven and says, “ All the days of thy life include the nights as well. ”

Work, little fool, toil. Those who are besmirched; if Messiah comes, you'll be happy. You'll have a shining Paradise. But, the sages say this world-a person lives only once on earth and he must profit and learn that he is free- that you should carry all your days the memory of the land of Egypt. You must remember that you have long been freed from servitude and must lead a decent life.
haggadah Section: -- Four Questions
Source: A Bund Haggadah: Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party Pesakh Haggadah According to a New Mode (1900)

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