Four Cups of Wine

Haggadah Section: Introduction

Leader: Why do we drink 4 cups on this night?

Participant: 1) It is the reminder that only the Jews, who suffered so much under the Romans, have preserved the customs of the Roman meal: reclining when we drink, two cups before the meal and two after, dipping one kind of food into another before eating.  But since the ancient Romans exist no longer, banished to oblivion for their cruelty and their ostentation, why do we continue their customs? Perhaps as a reminder that however human beings may misuse the products of God’s creation, it is up to us to help redeem them, to restore the holiness for which God created them. Thus we have transformed the ostentatious meal of an arrogant oppressor into the modest matzah feast of the (rescued) oppressed.  Part of the transformation takes place the tasting the wine itself, changing ordinary night into holy time of Passover.

Participant: 1) In the sixth chapter of Exodus (verses 6 and 7), God makes four promises to Israel which flow out of God’s covenant with us: 1) I will bring you out from under the burdens of Mitzrayim, 2) I will deliver from their service, 3)I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great judgment, 4) I will take you to Me for people and I’ll become God for you. 

Participant: Traditionally, each cup represents one of these promises.  But in verse eight of Chapter 6 there’s a fifth promise: 5) I shall bring you to the land, which, by Seder night, had not been fulfilled.  The debate over whether the fifth promise should we celebrated by cup of its own let the decision to leave the answer to Elijah, the herald the messianic coming.  Hence the custom of the Cup for Elijah and the messianic “fifth cup.”

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