During a festive meal—on Shabbat and other holidays—we generally follow the Kiddush with a ritual hand-washing. But this is usually done in preparation to break bread. Here we also have a hand washing before eating a vegetable, which all comes before we ever get to the bread (matzah). Why such an odd deviation from practice? The most common answer is that it is odd precisely so it will look odd, and thereby provoke questions. And the prompting of questions, especially among children, is a major objective of the evening. Our Rabbis understand that curiosity is the beginning of knowledge and learning—so we’ll do all sorts of strange things tonight that will evoke that kind of questioning.


haggadah Section: Urchatz
Source: IKAR Seder Guide