Nisan 5784: The Mysterious Fifth Cup

🍷 Is one actually supposed to pour, or even drink, a fifth cup of wine at the Pesach seder? What does the Talmud actually say, and what about Eliyahu ha-Navi? Today, what the Rishonim can tell us.

Prague Haggada of 1526, showing the page on which we today typically open the door for the prophet Eliyahu (Elijah).

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Today’s newsletter is devoted to untangling, just a little bit because it’s a vast topic, how the four cups that are so well-known from the seder meal actually have a complex history that requires us to consider seriously the impact of textual transmission on our practice. I hope it will enhance your seder night!

The Fifth Cup in Rabbinic Sources

The Mishna in Pesachim 10:1 is clear: four cups are required for the seder meal, and charity must be provided to those in need to enable them to fulfill this mitzvah. It is one of the iconic “fours” of the seder, along with the Four Questions, the Four Sons, and a litany of others. The Yerushalmi on this Mishna proposes several reasons why there are specifically four cups of wine, the first of which is important to the question of a mysterious fifth cup of wine:

מניין לארבעה כוסות רבי יוחנן בשם ר' ר' בנייה כנגד ארבע גאולות (שמות ו) לכן אמור לבני ישראל אני ה' והוצאתי אתכם וגו' ולקחתי אתכם לי לעם וגומר והוצאתי והצלתי וגאלתי ולקחתי

From where [do we know the requirement to drink] four cups? Rabbi Yochanan [said] in the name of Rav, Rabbi Banniah said, “Corresponding to the four [expressions of] salvations: ‘Therefore say unto the children of Israel: I am the L-rd, and I will remove you,’ etc. ‘And I will take you to Me for a people,’ etc. (Shemot 20:6-7). And I will remove you, and I will rescue you, and I will save you, And I will take you.’”

Talmud Yerushalmi Pesachim 10:1

The Yerushalmi’s explanation points out that four Hebrew verbs are used in the passage from Sefer Shemot to describe the redemption of Bnei Yisrael, and that the four cups correspond to these four verbs; here is how they appear in the Torah:

ו) לָכֵ֞ן אֱמֹ֥ר לִבְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֮ אֲנִ֣י ה’ וְהוֹצֵאתִ֣י אֶתְכֶ֗ם מִתַּ֙חַת֙ סִבְלֹ֣ת מִצְרַ֔יִם וְהִצַּלְתִּ֥י אֶתְכֶ֖ם מֵעֲבֹדָתָ֑ם וְגָאַלְתִּ֤י אֶתְכֶם֙ בִּזְר֣וֹעַ נְטוּיָ֔ה וּבִשְׁפָטִ֖ים גְּדֹלִֽים׃ ז) וְלָקַחְתִּ֨י אֶתְכֶ֥ם לִי֙ לְעָ֔ם וְהָיִ֥יתִי לָכֶ֖ם לֵֽאלֹקים וִֽידַעְתֶּ֗ם כִּ֣י אֲנִ֤י ה’ אֱלֹ֣קיכֶ֔ם הַמּוֹצִ֣יא אֶתְכֶ֔ם מִתַּ֖חַת סִבְל֥וֹת מִצְרָֽיִם׃

6) Say, therefore, to the Israelite people: I am the L-RD. I will remove you from the labors of the Egyptians and rescue you from their bondage. I will save you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements. 7) And I will take you to be My people, and I will be your G-d. And you shall know that I, the L-RD, am your G-d who freed you from the labors of the Egyptians.

Shemot 6:6-7

However, there is, in the next pasuk (verse), a fifth redemptive verb, perhaps indicative of a fifth cup:

ח) וְהֵבֵאתִ֤י אֶתְכֶם֙ אֶל־הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֤ר נָשָׂ֙אתִי֙ אֶת־יָדִ֔י לָתֵ֣ת אֹתָ֔הּ לְאַבְרָהָ֥ם לְיִצְחָ֖ק וּֽלְיַעֲקֹ֑ב וְנָתַתִּ֨י אֹתָ֥הּ לָכֶ֛ם מוֹרָשָׁ֖ה אֲנִ֥י ה’׃

I will bring you into the land which I raised my hand to give to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and I will give it to you for a possession, I the L-RD.”

Shemot 6:8

Indeed we find—though not in our Vilna Shas, the prevalent printed edition of the Talmud—an explicit fifth cup of wine mentioned.