Every Passover, Jewish families around the world begin their Seder with a question. Not just any question – a question asked by a child. “Why is this night different from all other nights?”
In fact, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks noticed something remarkable about the Exodus story. In the section dealing with the plagues and Israel’s departure from Egypt, the Torah returns three times to the same theme: children must ask questions.
These passages became the foundation for the four sons in the Passover Haggadah. But they reveal something deeper about Judaism itself: it is a faith built on questions, not blind obedience.
This is strange. Most traditional cultures teach children to obey their parents and teachers without challenge. “Children should be seen, not heard,” goes the English proverb. The Athenians executed Socrates for teaching young people to ask too many questions.
Judaism takes the opposite approach. It is a religious duty to teach children to ask questions. In fact, Rabbi Sacks pointed out that Hebrew has no word for “obey.” When modern Hebrew needed such a verb, it had to borrow one from Aramaic. Instead, the Torah uses shema – which means to listen, to hear, to understand, to internalize, and to respond. Understanding comes before compliance.
The entire Bible is filled with people questioning God. Abraham asked, “Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?” (Genesis 18:25). Moses demanded, “Why, Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people?” (Exodus 5:22). Jeremiah wondered, “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?” (Jeremiah 12:1). The book of Job is essentially one long question. God’s answer? Four chapters of even deeper questions: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” (Job 38:4).
Nobel Prize winner Isadore Rabi once explained how he became a scientist. While other mothers asked their children, “What did you learn today?” his mother asked, “Izzy, did you ask a good question today?” That one question changed everything.
Rabbi Sacks understood that questions are how children grow. More than that, questions are how civilizations survive. “To defend a country you need an army,” he wrote, “but to defend a civilization you need education.” Freedom disappears when we stop asking why it matters.
This doesn’t mean every question has an immediate answer. Some things we understand only with age and experience. Others require deep study. Some may be beyond us entirely. Even Newton admitted he was just “a boy playing on the seashore” next to an undiscovered ocean of truth.
But that’s the point. Judaism honors what Maimonides called the “active intellect” – the God-given ability to think, question, probe, and explore. Those confident in their faith don’t fear questions. Only those with secret doubts need to silence them.
At the moment Israel left Egypt to become a free people, Moses told parents to hand down the story to their children. But not through commands and lectures. Through questions. “Encourage your children to ask, question, probe, investigate, analyze, explore,” Rabbi Sacks explained. “Liberty means freedom of the mind, not just of the body.”
Teaching children to question isn’t just an educational method; it’s how civilizations survive and individuals grow. It’s why questioning has produced some of history’s greatest thinkers and discoveries. And it’s why honoring human intelligence as God’s gift to humanity creates societies that flourish rather than stagnate.
So the next time a child asks, “Why?” – celebrate it. You’re witnessing the human mind doing exactly what it was designed to do.
