Lessons From the Five Cups

March 2021 Charlotte Jewish News

By Rabbi Michael Wolk, Temple Israel

It is hard to believe that it has been almost a year since last Passover. When we planned our seders in April 2020, we were at the beginning of this terrible pandemic and did not truly understand just how much suffering we would experience and how long it would take to work our way to freedom and normalcy. At this time last year, Zoom was something novel, and we felt a degree of empowerment in using technology to overcome the dangers that prevented us from celebrating Passover together even while we missed our family. But this year, we are tired of Zoom. A year of social distancing has exhausted and demoralized us, and we just want to be free. As more and more of us get vaccinated, we can see the path to freedom, but we are not there yet. Too many of us are still in danger.

At this moment in our story, we should focus on the lesson of the five cups of wine. At each seder, we drink four cups of wine and leave a fifth, the cup of Elijah, untouched on the table. While the multiple cups of wine make the seder more entertaining, they also have religious significance. When God promises to redeem our ancestors from Egyptian slavery in the book of Exodus, God uses four verbs: VeHotzeiti (I will free you), VeHitzalti (I will deliver you), VeGa’alti (I will redeem you), VeLakachti (I will take you). Tradition teaches that each one of these verbs represents a level of redemption from slavery because the redemption did not happen all at once; moving from a life of oppressed slavery and fear in which our ancestors could not make their own choices to being a free and confident people takes time and development. The first level of freedom was the salvation from harsh labor, which took place when the plagues started. The second level was salvation from servitude on the day the Israelites left Egypt. The third level was the splitting of the sea when the Israelites realized that they no longer had to be afraid of the Egyptians. Finally, the fourth level of redemption took place at Sinai when the Israelites became the Jewish people in a relationship with God that included responsibilities we were obligated to fulfill. When we drink a cup of wine at the seder for each step toward redemption, we are celebrating that we have reached a new level of freedom. The Cup of Elijah represents an additional level of freedom that we have yet to attain.

As we mark the second Passover of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will not yet feel free, as most of us will be celebrating virtually. At Temple Israel, Cantor Lissek and I will be leading a Zoom seder on the second night of Passover. It is not what I want to be doing, but it will enable us to come together for one of our most beloved rituals. But even as we are not yet fully free, it is important to mark how much closer we are to freedom than at this time last year. The Israelites were quick to lose faith in Moses and in God when Pharaoh did not set them free immediately. Though it would be easy for us to take a nihilistic approach to our situation and say that nothing matters if we cannot go back to our old lives right now, we should instead continue to have faith in the advice of our public health professionals and celebrate the miracles that are the new vaccines.

In the Haggadah we read, “This year we are slaves, but next year we shall be free.” We chant this aspirational line even as we enjoy our festive seders. I would add a new verse for this Passover — this year we are socially distanced from those we love, but next we shall all be together.