מַה נִּשְׁתַּנָּה הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה מִכָּל הַלֵּילוֹת? שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָנוּ אוֹכְלִין חָמֵץ וּמַצָּה, הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה – כֻּלּוֹ מַצָּה. שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָנוּ אוֹכְלִין שְׁאָר יְרָקוֹת – הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה (כֻּלּוֹ) מָרוֹר. שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אֵין אָנוּ מַטְבִּילִין אֲפִילוּ פַּעַם אֶחָת – הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה שְׁתֵּי פְעָמִים. שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָנוּ אוֹכְלִין בֵּין יוֹשְׁבִין וּבֵין מְסֻבִּין – הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה כֻּלָּנוּ מְסֻבִּין

Ma Neeshtana ha-laila ha-zeh meekol ha-laylot?
Sheh-bichol ha-laylot anoo ochleem chametz oo-matzah. Halailah hazeh chametz oomatz.
Sheh-bi'chol ha-laylot anoo ochleem sheh-ar yerakot. Ha-lailah hazeh maror.
Sheh-bi'chol ha-laylot ayn anoo mat-bee- leen afeeloo pa-am echad. Ha-laila hazeh sh'tay pi-ameem.
Sheh- bi'chol ha-laylot anoo ochleem bayn yoshveen oo-bayn misoobeen. Ha-laila hazeh koolanoo misooveen.

What differentiates this night from all [other] nights? On all [other] nights we eat chamets and matsa; this night, only matsa? On all [other] nights we eat other vegetables; tonight (only) marror. On all [other] nights, we don't dip [our food], even one time; tonight [we dip it] twice. On [all] other nights, we eat either sitting or reclining; tonight we all recline.

Oh.

I love Ma Nishtana. 

I love Ma Nishtana, as recited in Yiddish with a thick, sweet Galicianer accent by my Zaydie. 

I love Ma Nishtana as declaimed by me in Latin with the aid of a printout from my high school Latin teacher (at this point, I remember no Latin). 

I love Ma Nishtana as my now grown up little brother’s indulgence of our family’s mishegas, sung while standing on a chair, even though he is over six feet tall, because he is the youngest and sorry, that’s just how it goes. 

I love Ma Nishtana as sung through a smile by my Mom, who is the youngest of her siblings.  

I love Ma Nishtana as joyfully scream-sung by my baby cousins who prepared so much and then got flustered but then rebounded.

I love Ma Nishtana as an epitomization of maybe the Haggadah as a guide to a pedagogy of freedom or feminism my Mom alludes to in her article, because Ma Nishtana is about inspiring accountable, joyful, empowered participation.

I love Ma Nishtana because it gave me one of my favorite questions in my dramaturgical toolkit. 

I love Ma Nishtana because those four answers are some insufficient, direct, overly-literal nonsense, and therefore Ma Nishtana is actually an epitomization of something I can love without qualification about Judaism: all the damn questions, the sweet questions, the questions with no answers in sight, the questioning for the love of deep inquiry, because those four answers are, by no means, all of it. How could they be?

I love Ma Nishtana for the same reason I love seeing the messy, incomplete studies of great painters and hearing drafts on the way; I love when the mechanisms by which we learn to do the art can be art in and of themselves.

I love Ma Nishtana because most worthwhile things, including asking questions, require practice, and what a gift that we’ve been given a start and a guide, when so often embarrassment, shyness, or shame get in the way of the best questions ever being asked. 

So. 

What are you going to ask? 


haggadah Section: -- Four Questions
Source: Shara Feit