Why Ask the Four Questions on Passover?

Why are the four questions asked as part of the Passover seder service?

The common answer is that the questions are asked to involve the children. But why couldn’t this custom to involve the kids be done in the Sukkah hut or during another holiday?

On Passover we celebrate our freedom from slavery. A slave is allowed no independent will, no opinion, and cannot question authority or voice his thoughts. With freedom the Jewish nation was given the possibility to ask, to question.

The idea of Passover in our personal lives is about becoming free from our internal constraints. Only by probing what Judaism is, asking and seeking more, can one become free from his or her current state, and reach a higher spiritual level.

Asking of the four questions symbolizes that quest.

Adapted from the written notes of Passover commentary of my grandfather, the venerated scholar and teacher Rabbi Chaim Meir Bukiet, of blessed memory.