A CUP OF BLESSING AND A CUP OF WRATH!
THE LAST TWO CUPS OF THE JEWISH PASSOVER!
SOON CUP FOUR WILL BE POURED ON UNBELIEVERS!
April 24, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The Excerpt from the Jerusalem Post by Shlomo Riskin, which follows, is very interesting, especially since this is Passover week in Israel. It may seem strange to some Gentiles that at one point in the ceremony the participants chant: “Pour out Thy wrath upon the gentiles who do not know You and who do not call upon Your Name.” (Haggada)
I believe you will find our heading and the excerpt from the Jerusalem Post, which follows it, quite interesting.
There are four cups that represent the format of the Passover. The first cup is the blessing of the festival day, it’s the kiddush cup. The second cup of wine occurs really at th
e beginning of the Passover discourse itself, and that involves the singing of Psalm 113. And then there’s the THIRD CUP, THE CUP OF BLESSING before the actual meal, the unleavened bread and so on. And then, before THE FOURTH CUP, you sing Psalms: 114, 115, 116, 117 and 118. And having sung those psalms you drink the fourth cup which is the climax of the Passover.
Jesus established what we call the Lord’ s Supper on the third cup, the cup of ble
ssing, and Judas then immediately went out before he gave THE GREAT COMMANDMENT TO LOVE to the eleven disciples, the church he organized long before his final Passover. He took a piece of bread and dipped in what is called charoseth (a mixture of herbs, some of which were bitter, and spices), which was an appetizer before the actual eating of the Passover Lamb.
CHAROSETH
Charoseth Jewish; sweet-sour sauce, a traditional part of the Passover meal, derived from the Roman sauces that were used as a dip.
A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005.
John 13:30-35 – He then having received THE SOP went immediately out: and it was night. [31] Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
[32] If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. [33] Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. [34] A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. [35] By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
The article from the Jerusalem Post, which follows, explains the fourth cup in vivid detail, and explains why our title calls it “A Cup of Wrath.” It also explains why the following is chanted in association with the time the Jews take the fourth cup:
“Pour out Thy wrath upon the gentiles who do not know You and who do not call upon Your Name.” (Haggada)
THE CUP OF ELIJAH
But it is really the cup of wine that is called “The Cup of Elijah” which I am truly interested in discussing, since it brings to mind the wrath of God. His seven vials of wrath will be poured out on both Gentile and Jewish unbelievers just before, and at, the Second Advent of the Son of God, the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ the Messiah!
Begin Excerpt from Article by Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf
Cup of Elijah – Passover Tradition
By Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf
Elijah the Prophet occupies a fascinating place in Jewish historical consciousness. Our tradition teaches that as history approaches the climactic era of universal peace and brotherhood, it will be Elijah the Prophet who announces the heralding of the messianic era.
Additionally, when the Talmud is unable to definitively resolve certain questions of law or practice, it often states that the question have to wait for Elijah.
With the advent of the final era, one of Elijah’s roles will be to resolve all those lingering scholarly quandaries.
There is an opinion in the Talmud which states that five cups of wine, not four, are to be drunk at the Seder.
In practice we follow the majority opinion and drink only four cups. In deference to the minority opinion, however, we pour the Fifth Cup of wine even though no one drinks from it. This Fifth Cup of wine bears the name of Elijah because it is he who will eventually resolve this question, as well as many others.
End of Excerpt by Rabbi Apisdorf
The mention of Elijah shortly after the description of God’s wrath by the Prophet Malachi is very interesting, for it speaks of the Second Advent of the Sun of Righteousness, the only righteous man who was righteous from conception in Mary’s womb until his death at Golgotha.
Malachi 4:1-6 – For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. [2] But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
[3] And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
[4] Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
[5] Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: [6] And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Begin Article from the Jerusalem Post
Pouring out anger… and love
Shlomo Riskin, THE JERUSALEM POST
April 17, 2008
“Pour out Thy wrath upon the gentiles who do not know You and who do not call upon Your Name.” (Haggada)
During the mystical Pessah Seder – the night when every Jew attempts to feel as if he/she personally experienced the servitude in and the Exodus from Egypt – one jarring note comes between the Grace after Meals and the chanting of the Hallel praises to God: “Pour out Thy wrath upon the gentiles who do not know You and who do not call upon Your Name. They have devoured Jacob, and laid waste His Temple.”
Why call out these words, and why at that particular place at the Seder, just before the fourth cup of wine?
These words echo Psalm 79, which opens: “A song to Assaf: O God, the gentiles have invaded Your inheritance, have defiled Your Holy Temple, have given Jerusalem to the jackals…,” and the custom of including them in the Haggada harks back to the time of the Jerusalem Talmud (fourth century CE). Rabbenu Menahem Meiri brilliantly analyzes the placement: we have just eaten the meal reminiscent of the Pascal sacrifice in the Holy Temple and have recited the Grace after Meals, the introduction to which (zimmun) is derived from the verse, “Since I call upon the name of the Lord, give greatness to our God.” We have also prayed for the restoration of Jerusalem (the third blessing in the Grace after Meals) and have given the “good and beneficent” God His due for having granted us the merit of burying our dead (the fourth blessing). Clearly the Temple had been destroyed and the Jews had been persecuted (by Emperor Hadrian). Hence, we who call on the name of God ask Him to punish those who do not, and we who have just devoured sacrificial food ask that those who “devoured” Jacob not be allowed to remain unpunished.
Rabbi Moshe Isserles, great Ashkenazi decisor of 16th-century Cracow, Poland, adds yet another custom: “And we open the door [at this point] in order to remind us that this [the Seder night] is a night of watching [leil shimurim], the Night of the Watchful Guardian, and in the merit of this faith the Messiah will come and pour out his wrath on those who deny God’s existence.” And to this, the 20th-century Hafetz Haim (Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan Hakohen of Radin, Poland) added in his Mishna Brura commentary on the Shulhan Aruch: “We are not frightened [of the open door]; and it is the custom in these countries to pour an extra cup of wine and call it the Cup of Elijah….”
A 12th-century authority (Ma’aseh Rokeah 19a) cites the custom of leaving the door open all night in order to greet Elijah, herald of the Messiah, although most authorities suggest that the door be kept ajar only for a very short time if at all, and that – especially in gentile countries – we do not rely on miracles by leaving our doors unlocked.
I would like to understand the reason for opening the door, a cogent reason which should explain the connection of the open door to leil shimurim, Elijah and the exclamation, “Pour out thy wrath on the gentiles who do not call upon Your Name…” – and all of this happening just before the fourth cup. What is the true significance of these words and acts?
As we have seen, the Grace after Meals refers to the destruction of the Temple – even as it calls for its rebuilding – as well as to the Hadrianic persecutions after the fall of Betar (135 CE). Hence our cry at this juncture in the Seder for the punishment of those who refuse to recognize God – His morality and His nation Israel – is most underst
andable. Our next cup of wine, however, introduces the Psalms of Praise for our return to our homeland – although we may still remain vulnerable (“Please God save us” is part of the Hallel) – with exaltations like “Let all the nations give praise to God… because He has enabled our victory in His lovingkindness.” We therefore invoke Elijah, herald of the Messiah, to announce the culmination of our salvation, the rebuilding of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
Josephus, great historian of the Second Commonwealth, provides the most authoritative source for the opening of the door: “On the festival of matzot, which we call Pessah, the priests/kohanim are accustomed to open the gates of the Temple immediately after midnight….” (Antiquities 18, 2.2). And remember, the main function of the Temple in Jerusalem is as a house of prayer for all nations, the place to which all nations will swarm to learn Torah from Zion and the word of God from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2, Micah 4).
The Divine Revelation at Sinai is preceded by a tale of two gentiles: Amalek, the symbol of unredeemable evil which must be destroyed (Exodus 17:8-16), and Jethro, the gentile inspired to join the ranks of his son-in-law Moses as a result of God’s miracles during our Exodus (Ex 18:1-12). Amalek is the gentile who must be destroyed; Jethro is the gentile who must be welcomed into the Temple gates!
The Midrash on the verse, “This is the law of the Pessah lamb sacrifice: no son of a stranger (ben-nechar, gentile) may eat of it” (Ex 12:43), teaches: “Job declared, ‘a stranger [ger] may not dwell outside,’ the Holy One blessed be He cannot invalidate any of His children; I shall open my doors for the guest to enter the presence of the Holy One, blessed be He. And eventually strangers (gerim) will be priests/kohanim in the Holy Temple” (Shmot Rabba 19, Vilna Edition).
And so, just before the praises of Hallel, we must open the doors of our Seder to the gentile world, remembering the function of our Holy Temple, as our invitation to every human being to accept the God of peace and morality – despite our legitimate theological differences.
When they enter our portals, peace will come not only to Israel but to the entire world – and this is the truest message of our “time of freedom” and prayer for redemption!
The writer is the founder and chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs, and chief rabbi of Efrat.
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