Why does one drink four cups of wine throughout the Passover Seder?
There are multiple reasons which means nobody really knows for sure, but one of the reasons cited in an 1,800 year old discussion lifts up an expression from today’s chapter of PSLAMS as one of the more problematic and polemical reasons.
Yet again, the convergence indicates that there’s some sort of flow, perhaps a serendipity, between the ways this biblical literacy journey meets both our personal stories and the public ones of our calendar. Let’s raise a cup to that.
So why four cups at Seder? The likeliest reason is that the Seder is modeled after a Roman banquet, which in itself is inspired by the Greek Symposium - an intellectual feast in which four super size jugs of wine would be consumed as a form of libation infused liberation, as everybody talks about lofty stuff. Plato wrote a bestseller about it. Around the same time that whoever wrote or edited the Psalms was doing their job.
But the Jewish sages came up with their own suggestions, and one of their discussions was preserved in the Passover Tractate of the Jerusalem Talmud, circa 3rd Century CE:
“ From where did we get the four cups?
Rabbi Yochanan said: they correspond to the four expressions of redemption found in Scripture; Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said: they correspond to the four cups of wine that the servant of Pharaoh had in the dream that was interpreted by Joseph; Rabbi Levi said: they correspond to the four nations that have oppressed us over the generations.
Other rabbis said: They correspond to the four cups of affliction which the Almighty will eventually serve to the nations of the world for hating us - and make them drink.”
They rabbis use biblical prooftexts to back up their theories. The last one, ascribed to an anonymous bunch, uses a phrase from Psalm 11, in which the poetback imagines the days on which Israel will be finally free of exiles and persecutions, liberated and home. But it won’t be pretty, either, and there will be hell to pay. The foes and forces that have made life miserable for us will be punished with cups full to the brim with brimstones:
יַמְטֵ֥ר עַל־רְשָׁעִ֗ים פַּ֫חִ֥ים אֵ֣שׁ וְ֭גׇפְרִית וְר֥וּחַ זִלְעָפ֗וֹת מְנָ֣ת כּוֹסָֽם׃
Upon the wicked God will cause to rain coals; fire and brimstone and burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.
Ps. 11:6
This is definitely not the most friendly text in our archives, and it is reflective of our generational old trauma as well as the human capacity for rage and revenge. This is also not the official reason cited in most Passover Haggadah commentaries, although some elements of glee over the fate of the Egyptians, and some sort of messianic expectations for a future that includes wrath upon the nations that dislike or harm us are still part of the Seder, often omitted.
Luckily there are other reasons that can feel more positive for why we drink through Seder, perhaps too much, to face the past and reimagine better futures.
The rest of this Talmudic passage adds one more opinion - the more popular and cited one:
“ In response to the four nations that have sought to annihilate the Jewish people, and as consolation, the Divine will serve the people Israel four cups of consolation and comfort, as it it stated elsewhere in the Psalms and recited each Saturday night: “I raise a cup of salvation.”
Let’s raise a cup, or four, or more, to liberation of all people, and let all cups be full of faith in less fear and more love, leaving the narrowness behind and walking together towards a time where no vengeful violence is what we drink to, just responsible human realities.
Our fates and futures are intertwines - what’s in your cup matters to mine, and vice versa.
Wishing us all continued creativity this Passover, healing and hope, a peaceful, nourishing and meaningful Seder. L’chayim. To Life.
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