Pesach - 5778 A Night Of Fours

Pesach - 5778

Rabbi Hal Miller

A Night Of Fours

Why is this night different from all other nights?

There are often patterns of numbers in Jewish literature. Each pattern teaches us

something. The first one that most people notice is seven: the number of days in

a week, the number of blessings for a wedding, etc. But there are many other such

number patterns as well. On Pesach, we see a pattern of fours. What does this

pattern teach us?

Some of these 'fours' are well-known to us: Four Questions, four cups of wine, four

sons. But, there are others: kinds of suffering in Egypt, kinds of redemption, exiles,

expressions, and others. How do they tie together? It appears to be the cups of wine.

Talelei Oros brings Bina L'Itim on the suffering: poverty, physical abuse, insult and

degradation, and spiritual ruin. He says that the first cup of wine is a reminder of spiritual rebirth, the second cup is of insult and degradation, the third cup of poverty,

and the fourth cup of physical abuse.

Midrash Rabbah lists four expressions telling us why we should rejoice: we were

taken out of Egypt, we were freed from slavery, we were acquired as God's servants,

and we were betrothed by God. The first cup of wine corresponds to freedom from

slavery, the second to removal from Egypt, the third is after bentsching where we

mention the covenant of circumcision which corresponds to His acquisition of us, and

the fourth at the end of Hallel when we are closest to Him.

In discussing the bread of the poor, the Vilna Gaon lists four types of poverty: one

who has no food, one who has food but not enough, the weariness after an extended

journey, and those afflicted with slavery. In Egypt, the Jews faced all four types.

He goes on to tie the four cups to each of these, and in the alternative, relates them

to four stages of the world's development: the present state, the Messianic era, the

era of resurrection of the dead, and the world to come.

Talmud Yerushalmi says that the four cups correspond to the four exiles at the

hands of four kingdoms, Bavel, Persia-Media, Greece, and Rome. But all these

exiles occurred after the exodus from Egypt, so what would be the connection?

The rabbis find allusions to each of those kingdoms in the text of the Haggadah,

spread through the text of the four cups.

Each cup has deep significance, and should be treated with awe.