"Torah Lights"
 
Video Insights on the Parsha
 
 by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel: “I shall bring you to the land about which I raised my hand [in oath] to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; And I shall give it to you as a heritage – I am Hashem” (Genesis 6:8)

The most famous source for the four cups of wine which we drink at the Passover Seder is found in our Biblical portion of Va’era, which cites four expressions of redemption: “I will free you from under the burdens of the Egyptians [the killing of the male babies], and I will rescue you from their work [the actual enslavement], I shall redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments [the ten plagues and the splitting of the Reed Sea]; I shall take you to Me for a nation and I shall be for you as a G-d [in your ability to survive the Egyptian rigors and experience the Revelation at Sinai]; and I shall bring you to the land…”(Exodus 6:6-8). Even someone with a minimal background in mathematics will readily count five – and not four – expressions of redemption. What happened to the fifth cup?

The simplest explanation is that because of the sin of the spies, the slave-desert generation did not make it to the Land of Israel. Moreover, the very compilation of the Passover Haggadah took place in Babylon after the destruction of the Second Temple. The mystical, magical night of the Seder opens with the declaration, “Here is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the Land of Egypt… Now we are here, next year may we be in the Land of Israel. Now we are slaves, next year may we be free.” Since we were living in exile, it hardly made sense to drink a fifth cup of wine marking our return to our ancestral homeland; we weren't there!

Nevertheless, there are still five expressions of redemption in the bible!  Therefore the custom developed to have a special fifth cup for Elijah the prophet who will eventually return to earth as the herald of redemption.

From this perspective, we can readily understand why – once we have, with G-d's help, been privileged to attain sovereignty over our Jewish homeland – Rav Menachem Kasher (Torah Shleimah, Divrei Menahem) has endorsed reinstituting the fifth cup to be poured right before Hallel HaGadol, in accordance with the view of many of the Gaonim and Rishonim (see Otzar HaGaonim and Rishonim to B.T. Pesahim 118a, variant readings to Mishnah Pesahim 10:5, Maimonides, Laws of Hametz and Matzah 8,10, as well as my own interpretation in “A Haggadah Happening”).

At this stage in history, when we have returned to our land but not yet rebuilt the Holy Temple, it is particularly appropriate to pour the fifth cup for universal redemption of world peace, for which we all yearn.

One question remains, however, especially for those of us who do pour and drink a fifth cup. Why do we also continue to pour the cup for Elijah right before Grace after Meals? We've returned to our homeland, we anxiously await the universal redemption; these ideals are imbedded in the fifth cup. Why the cup for Elijah? What does it add?

Natan Sharansky is a genuine hero of our time, a prisoner of Zion held captive in the gulag behind the Iron Curtain of Soviet Russia, rescued by the indefatigable efforts of his beloved and courageous wife Avital and the grassroots Soviet Jewry movement which developed in the 60's and 70's. He became a minister in the Israeli government and is a celebrated author and international spokesman on behalf of freedom, democracy and morality.

A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of attending his daughter's wedding at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem. At the conclusion of the marriage ceremony, just before the breaking of the glass, Sharansky reminisced about his own wedding ceremony, which occurred 34 years earlier. “It took place in a one-room apartment in Moscow, behind closed doors and shuttered windows, with only a quorum of ten men, including myself and the rabbi.  A sheet served as a marriage canopy and, with the exception of the rabbi, no one really understood the meaning behind the ritual. But then, when the glass was shattered underfoot, everyone understood. We all understood destruction and mourning, we all understood Jewish victimization and sacrifice.” Then, when that very night Natan Sharansky was taken from his bride by the KGB (Soviet Secret Police), everyone understood even better…

"But now," asked Sharansky, "as we are miraculously standing under this nuptial canopy with our daughter and son-in-law here in Jerusalem, in sight of the Temple Mount, why should we still break the glass?" Addressing the young couple, Sharansky magnificently answered his own question: "Your task, Micha and Rachel, is more difficult than ours was. We had to get to Jerusalem, but you have to protect and preserve Jerusalem. You have to protect and preserve the indelible connection between Jerusalem below and Jerusalem above. You have to protect and preserve the prophetic dream of Jerusalem, the City of World Peace…”

I would submit that this charge goes one step further. The Bible opens with the words, "In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth", and the Book of Exodus opens with G-d's five promises of redemption. Our Bible ends with the words, "Thus said Cyrus, King of Persia. Hashem, G-d of Heaven, has commanded me to build Him a Temple in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of His entire people, may go to fulfill this task. May Hashem his G-d be with him." (Second Book of Chronicles 36:23)

G-d created an incomplete, imperfect world and promised redemption. We, who are created in His image, must complete and perfect His world, build His Temple, and realize redemption. Elijah the Prophet must pave the way for King Messiah, and during the Seder we must open the door and let Elijah in. In Grace after Meals, we thank G-d for the bread, but we understand that before we can eat, we must first develop the agricultural processes and work hard in order to produce the food. "They [the people] must build for Me a Temple so that I may dwell in their midst" (Exodus 25: 8). The cup of Elijah reminds us of our crucial role in the path to redemption.

Shabbat Shalom

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