As it is about a week till pesach (oh no – I need to pesach clean!!!), I’ve been reading Rambam’s hilchot chametz u matzah. I came across something today which made me wonder about the status of the four questions according to Rambam. First off, a quick review is in order. Although there are some manuscripts of the mishnah which only report 3 questions, the final version of the talmud bavli (see daf קטז of the link for the details), presents four questions to be asked at pesach time: matzah, maror, dipping, and roasted meat. (The korban pesach was fire roasted).

Now we look at Rambam:

ב[...]ומוזגין הכוס השני, וכאן הבן שואל.  ואומר הקורא, מה נשתנה הלילה הזה מכל הלילות:  שבכל הלילות, אין אנו מטבילין אפילו פעם אחת; והלילה הזה, שתי פעמים.  שבכל הלילות, אנו אוכלין חמץ ומצה; והלילה הזה, כולו מצה.  שבכל הלילות, אנו אוכלין שאר ירקות; והלילה הזה, מרורים.  שבכל הלילות, אנו אוכלין בשר צלי שלוק ומבושל; והלילה הזה, כולו צלי.  שבכל הלילות, אנו אוכלין בין יושבין ובין מסובין; והלילה הזה, כולנו מסובין.

ג  בזמן הזה, אינו אומר והלילה הזה כולו צלי–שאין לנו קרבן.

In short, Rambam lists five questions:  dipping, matzah, maror, roasted meat, and leaning. His next halacha (8:3) starts off by saying that today, since there is no beit hamikdash, we don’t ask about the roasted meat. This is in no way unusual for the Rambam – in fact one of the great joys of studying Rambam is that he consistently talks about what happened in the beit hamikdash, and then only afterwards mentions that we don’t do perform that action today. The new question that Rambam adds on leaning is his own invention, and one that could not have existed in the time of the mishnah of gemarah as reclining during meals was the standard then, and would not have elicited curiosity. He seems to add a new question (which is still said today) in order to keep the number of questions consistent at 4. However, if we were to get the beit hamikdash and the korban pesach back, it would seem at first glance that Rambam would say to ask five questions. (In fact, while trying to discover if anyone has addressed this issue before, I found several websites which claimed that Rambam reported there were originally five questions asked in the time of the beit hamikdash. Although it could be read that way, it is clear that Rambam knew better. After all, he clearly had a copy of the gemarah, and he himself is the alleged inventor of the fifth question on reclining). I have no problem with a number of questions other than four, but I am bothered by the lack of consistency. (In fact, I actually think the manuscript versions of the mishnah which give only 3 questions actually make for a more cohesive reading of the mishnah than the current one, but that’s a post for another time). Rambam initially adds a new question in order to keep the number consistent at four. This would imply some sort of importance to the number, or at least to the need for consistency in the number. However, he doesn’t drop one if we get the korban back. This implies a lack of importance to the number four. So which way is it – does the Rambam value the number four or not? Any thoughts?

As a quick addendum, it would seem to me that if Rambam’s initial implication was to drop the fifth question (reclining) when/if the korban returns then he would have included it in 8:3 and not 8:2. Thus his text would have included four questions in 8:2, and a comment in 8:3 that today we ask about reclining instead of roasted meat. But then again, what do I know, maybe this always was his intention.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 9:54 pm by Ari and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.