Haggadah:Four Cups/2

Four Cups

Exegetical Approaches

This topic is still being developed and updated

Four Statements of Praise

There are four instances in the Haggadah where we sing Hashem's praises, in Kaddesh, Maggid, Birkat HaMazon, and Hallel.  Since praise is normally accompanied by wine, these, too, are said over a cup of wine.

Sources:TosafotPesachim 99bSukkah 38aAbout Ba'alei HaTosafot

Why four? According to this approach, there is no special significance to the number four.  It so happens that there are four places where we "toast" Hashem's miracles and thus there are four cups of wine.

One obligation or four? This approach would view each cup as its own individual obligation, unconnected to the other three.

Can you drink all four at once? Since the liturgy is what is important, drinking all four at once defeats the purpose.

Who needs to drink? Ba'alei Tosafot suggests that the head of the household can fulfill the obligation for all those around him,¹ just as he does during kiddush on Shabbat.  The R. Y"Z  Soloveitchik explains that according to Tosafot, since the primary obligation is the recital of words of praise rather than the actual drinking, only one person must drink. This is no different than kiddush on Shabbat where there is a similarly an obligation of "אמירה על הכוס" where the drinking is secondary.²

Necessary shiur (רוב כוס)? The gemara rules that one must drink "the majority of a cup" to fulfill one's obligation.  It is not clear, though, if this is simply a way of saying that one must drink a "cheekful" (מלא לוגמיו) as one does in Kiddush,³ or if it is emphasizing the concept of drinking a cup of wine⁴. Tosafot maintain the former, in line with their understanding that the 4 cups are parallel to kiddush, where a "taste" is importat to establish "saying ver wine"

Status of undiluted wine

Women's obligation – Since women also participated in the miracle, they must also sing Hashem's praises, and are thus obligated to drink the Four Cups.

How does this relate to reclining?

Expression of Freedom or Happiness

Drinking four cups of wine is a demonstration of our status as free people.

Why four? According to this approach, wine must be drunken in abundance to be an expression of freedom or happiness.  The number four was probably chosen because it is a round number and allowed for associations with other relevant groupings of four:

• Four expressions of redemption – R. Yochanan connects the four cups to the four verbs in Shemot 6 which speak of Hashem's salvation (ארבע לשונות גאולה).
• Four cups of Paroh – R. Yehoshua b. Levi relates them to the four mentions of Paroh's cup in the dream of the Butler, in Bereshit 40.⁵
• Four kingdoms – According to R. Levi they match the four kingdoms that oppress Israel.⁶
• Four cups of wrath and consolation – The opinion of the Rabbis in the Yerushalmi suggests that the four cups correlate to the four cups of calamity that are to be given to the enemies of Israel in the future, which themselves correspond to four cups of consolation that Hashem is to give to Israel to drink.⁷

Why are they drunk where they are?

Halakhic ramifications

Combination

Sources:Rambam About Rambam Hilchot

¹ They do, though, recommend that one be strict and provide four cups of wine to all who are present.

² On Shabbat, in fact,  one has no wine one is even able to fulfill the mitzvah over bread.  The wine itself is thus obviously not essential.

³ To be considered a "cup" it must measure at least a "רביעית", or a fourth.  Since a majority of a "רביעית" is identical to the measurement of a "cheekful", it is possible that this is the meaning of the gemara.

⁴ The gemara's mention of drinking a majority of the cup is another way of saying to drink a cup's worth, but we maintain that "רובו ככולו", the majority is comparable to the whole.

⁵ Besides the fact that these verses also speak of a cup of wine, it is difficult to understand why one would try to correlate the cups at the Seder to the cups of Paroh specifically.

⁶ R. Levy might suggest that it is appropriate to recall all our enemies on Pesach, in keeping with the idea that Pesach is a prototype for all future oppressions, and thus all salvations.: "וְהִיא שֶׁעָמְדָה לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ וְלָנוּ שֶׁלֹּא אֶחָד בִּלְבָד עָמַד עָלֵינוּ לְכַלּוֹתֵנוּ, אֶלָּא שֶׁבְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר עוֹמְדִים עָלֵינוּ לְכַלּוֹתֵנוּ, וְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַצִּילֵנוּ מִיָּדָם."

⁷ This position might be the flipside of R. Levi's.  While he focused on other oppressors, the Rabbis focus on our future salvation from them, a major theme of Pesach.