ASK ANOTHER QUESTION: The Story and Meaning of Passover

Readers, whether children or adults, won't have any questions left: as is her practice, Chaikin explains the celebration of Passover from its origin--in two holidays predating the Exodus from Egypt (Festival of the Paschal Offering, Hag ha-Pesach; Festival of Unleavened Bread, Hag ha-Matzot)--to the incorporation into the Haggadah (or ""telling"") of references to the Holocaust and the birth of Israel. Insofar as the four basic questions asked on Passover night (""Why is this night different from all other nights?"" etc.) were originally designed to keep children awake during the long evening service, it's appropriate that they learn the changing answers given over centuries--which make the celebration seem both more venerable and more pertinent. The Exodus story is related in its place, of course; and the concluding description of how Passover is celebrated today, in the three main branches of Judaism and in dispersed Jewish communities, includes word of the Falashas--said (obviously before recent events) to be praying ""for an Exodus of their own.