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Sh'foch Chamat'cha/The Cup of Elijah
(One person fills a goblet with wine while a
second person goes to open a door for Elijah and a third person points to the
goblet and says: )
| The rabbis could not agree on whether there should be four
or five cups of wine at the seder. The compromise was to drink only four
cups but to set out a fifth cup until the coming of the Prophet Elijah. It
was said that he will come on the eve of the messianic age to resolve all
unresolved disputes --even those weightier than whether we should have four
or five cups of wine at Passover. |
May Elijah answer
all the questions that your quest cannot.
This and other legends arose about Elijah because there is
no record of his death, a rite of passage that would have severed his
connection to this world. Instead, according to legend, he travels back and
forth between Heaven and Earth like an angel or boddhisatva, a sojourner who
offers solace.
Adoptees, too, feel as if they are missing a rite of
passage, their birth, which would tie them more firmly to this reality. |
If adoptees do miss
connections, may this be to make them wise and compassionate like Elijah.
One
birth mother said that as she sets the cup of Elijah at her table, she also
sets a place in her heart for her missing child. Both are the guest who is
always welcome but who never attends.
Malachi prophesies: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet and he will
turn the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the
children to the parents before the coming of the great and awesome day of
God." |
Kos Hartsa-a/The fourth cup of
wine (We pour our final cup of wine and
continue)
God said: "And I will take you
to be my people"
V'lakachti etchem li l'am v'hayiti
lachem leilohim. [Exodus 6:7]
(So we way:)
Blessed art thou, O Eternal our
God,
Ruler of the Universe, who
createst the
Fruit of the vine.
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