Origins
The questions originate in the Mishna, Pesachim 10:4, but are quoted differently in the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds. The Jerusalem Talmud only records three questions; why two foods are dipped, why matzah is eaten, and why meat is eaten exclusively roasted. (The last question is a reference to the paschal sacrifice which was fire-roasted). The Babylonian Talmud quotes four questions; why matza is eaten, why maror is eaten, why meat is eaten 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, the question about the meat was dropped. The Rambam and Saadia Gaon 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.
Read more about this topic: Ma Nishtana
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)