4 Cups, 4 Promises and 4 Mothers

Haggadah Section: Kadesh
Women
The Four Cups of the Seder are structurally connected to the four verbal performances this evening:

(1) Kiddush, sanctifying the holiday (2) Maggid, the storytelling (3) Birkat HaMazon, completing the Pesach meal; and (4) Hallel, completing the festival Psalms.

The Talmud connects the Four Cups to God's Four Promises to Israel: "Tell the children of Israel: I am Adonai! I will take them out... I will rescue them… I will redeem them… and I will marry them taking them as my people and I will be their God" (Exodus 6:6-7, Jerusalem Talmud Pesachim 10:1).

However, two 16th C. mystic rabbis identify the Four Cups with the Four Matriarchs of Israel. The Maharal of Prague (famous for the legend of Golem) and Rav Isaiah Horowitz of Tsfat explain:

(1) The Cup of Kiddush stands for Sarah who was the mother of a community of converts, believers by choice.

(2) The Cup of Maggid is for Rebecca who knew how to mother both Esav and Jacob, two opposed natures.

(3) The Cup of the Blessing after Eating represents Rachel whose son Joseph provided the whole family of Jacob with bread in a time of great famine.

(4) The Cup of Hallel (Praise) is for Leah who came to realize that the pursuit of the impossible, Jacob's love, must give way to appreciation of what one has. When her fourth child was born, Judah, she praised God: " This time I will thank God " (Genesis 29:35).

Source:  
A Night to Remember: The Haggadah of Contemporary Voices by Mishael Zion and Noam Zion http://haggadahsrus.com/NTR.html
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Women's Seder
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Table of contents
    -- Cup #2 & Dayenu
  • Learning to say Dayenu
  • Miriam's Cup - Winona LaDuke, Native American Activist
  • The Passover Symbols, The Orange & Miriam's Cup
  • Learning to say Dayenu
  • Orange on the Passover Seder Plate
  • Still We Rise
    • Introduction
  • Audre Lorde Quote
  • Women's seder introduction
  • My Jewish Anniversary: A Liberation Story
  • This is Just the Beginning
  • Dispelling the Urban Myth of the Orange on the Seder Plate
  • The Well of Tradition and Miriam's Well
  • Dismantle the Patriarchy
  • Rape Culture Is...
  • Revenge of Dinah: Candle Lighting
  • Volunteer
    • Kadesh
  • The First Cup - Out of Slavery
  • Downtown Los Angeles 1.21.17
  • Kosi R'vayah-My Cup Runneth Over
  • 4 Cups, 4 Promises and 4 Mothers
  • Kadesh
  • On Account of the Righteous Women
  • First Cup of Wine
    • Urchatz
  • TOGETHER
  • Urchatz - Dip Hands
  • Urchatz
  • Dear 1%...
  • Revenge of Dinah: Urchatz
    • Karpas
  • Karpas
  • Karpas Image
    • Yachatz
  • Breaking the matzah - hunger
  • Emma on Freedom
  • Men of Quality Respect...
    • Maggid - Beginning
  • The Second Cup - I will deliver you
  • Hannah Szenes Quote
  • Women's Rights Are Human Rights
  • The Heroic and Visionary Women of Passover
  • Carole King: One Small Voice, 2017 Release
    • Commentary / Readings
  • Women of the Wall
  • Miriam's Cup Ritual for the Family Seder
    • -- Four Questions
  • A Feminist Seder Ma Nishtana
  • Alternative Four Questions
    • -- Four Children
  • Four Daughters
  • The Four Daughters
  • Queer Latina Femmes Fight Back
  • Revenge of Dinah: Four Children
    • -- Exodus Story
  • Mi Chamocha - Awe and Wonder in the Sea
  • Gender Quiz for Passover
  • Gender Reflections on the Passover Story
  • Justice For All
  • The role of women in The Redemption from Egypt
  • Telling Our Story
  • Resist or Cease to Exist
    • -- Ten Plagues
  • Ten plagues that women today face
  • Ten Modern Plagues
  • A Seventeen-Year-Old Jewish Feminist's Ten Plagues
  • Hands Off My Uterus
  • Ten Plagues of Rape Culture
    • Rachtzah
  • Rachtza- Mandi Cohen
    • Maror
  • The Journey Towards Liberation - The complicated parts
  • Lamenting the Wounds of Mother Earth
  • Infertility and Apples
    • Koreich
  • Maybe She's Born With It...
  • Mixing the Bitter and the Sweet
  • Apples
    • Tzafun
  • Diversity Makes Us Who We Are
    • Bareich
  • The Third Cup - I will redeem you
  • Where Did All the Women Go?
    • Hallel
  • The Fourth Cup - I will gather you
  • Adrienne Rich on Freedom
  • Poem Of Miriam
    • Nirtzah
  • I Change Myself, I Change the World
  • won't you celebrate with me, by Lucille Clifton
    • Conclusion
  • Does Your Feminism Gentrify My Hood?
    • Songs
  • Snow
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