Haggadah:Four Cups/2

Four Cups

Exegetical Approaches

This topic is still being developed and updated

Four Cases 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.

Halakhic ramifications

• Who needs to drink
• Necessary shiur
• One obligation or four?
• Can you drink all four at once?
• Status of undiluted wine

Source

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 Sefer 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 40.¹
• Four kingdoms – According to R. Levi they match the four kingdoms that oppress Israel.²
• Four cups of wrath – 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.³

Halakhic ramifications

Combination

¹ 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.

² 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."

³ 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.