I was asked to be a part of Out Of Order — an "unorthodox" Seder on the third night of Passover (March 31) at the Contemporary Jewish Museum where the Bay Area’s most creative and boundary-pushing artists, performers, writers, musicians, and ritualists each chose a piece of the Passover story to re-imagine. I picked the Four Questions and was heavily influenced by Common’s “The Questions” and A Tribe Called Quests “What?” :
What is a question if you don’t have answers
By Dan Wolf
It’s the questions its questions child
It’s the questions it’s the questions come on (x4)
What is a question if you don’t have answers
What is an 8 count without 4 dancers
What is a rapper without 16 bars
What’s a dream if you don’t wish upon a star
What is tradition if you don’t have laws
What’s a puppy dog with out big paws
Why jump back when you could jump off
Some come hard, why do some come soft
I don’t know …
It’s the questions its questions child
It’s the questions it’s the questions come on (x4)
Why on this night do we need to dip twice
What’s a burrito without beans and the rice
When do you run and when do you hide
What’s a revolution if there isn’t any fight
Why escape and then persecute
Why be blind to the seed and the stem and the root
Why lean back when you could energize
What’s the deal with all this choosing up sides
Why jump walls and then build em high
Why keep em shut when you could open your eyes
Who came first and who’s gonna last
Why keep on fighting bout the same old past
I keep on talking even tho’ you didn’t ask
Speaking off the top is what I see as my task
When did it start and when will it end
It’s the same old conversation come again
It’s the questions its questions child
It’s the questions it’s the questions come on (x4)
What is a plague if you acting all vague
What is the sun if you never see rain
What is a number if you never pass 1
What do you pack if it you don’t carry a gun
What is a vision if you really cant see
What is you style if you really aint free
What is a story if nobody listens
Will you be prepared when the next gen visits
Here we go …
It’s the questions its questions child
It’s the questions it’s the questions come on (x4)