Socrates (469399 B.C.E), the great Greek philosopher and mentor of Plato, was in the habit of asking disconcerting questions.  To this day, persistent questioning in search of clarity is known as the Socratic method.  For this habit, among other things, he was put on trial by the Athenians, accused of ‘corrupting the young,’ and sentenced to death.  Nothing could be less like Judaism, in which teaching the young to ask questions is an essential feature of Pesach, so much so that the Haggadah – the narration – must be in response to a question asked by a child.

In Judaism, to be without questions is not a sign of faith, but of lack of depth.  ‘As for the child who does not know how to ask, you must begin to teach him how.”…

The heroes of our faith asked questions of God, and the greater the prophet, the harder the question….

There are three conditions for asking a Jewish question.  The first is that we seek genuinely to                            learn – not to doubt, ridicule, dismiss, reject.  That’s what the ‘wicked son’ of the Haggadah does: ask not out of a desire to understand but as a prelude to walking away.  Second is that we accept limits to our understanding… Third is that we learn by living and understand by doing…


haggadah Section: -- Four Questions
Source: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks