Passover Message

A fourfold promise

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Early in the book of Exodus, God reaffirms the Divine promise to redeem the people of Israel who were oppressed in Egypt, bringing them from slavery to freedom. In a dramatic speech containing four powerful verbs, God states “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and deliver you … I will redeem you … and take you to be my people.”
Later on, Jewish tradition seized upon this fourfold promise as the basis for the four cups of wine that Jews drink at the Passover Seder to commemorate the Exodus. Each cup of wine represents a separate promise and a different aspect of the redemption — but all are necessary to fully rejoice in God’s deliverance.
The obligation to drink four cups of wine at a Passover Seder is so important that Jewish law requires that even a very poor person go to great lengths to acquire them. If necessary, he is obligated to sell some of his possessions, take out a loan, or even become someone’s indentured servant in order to procure enough wine to drink four cups at the Seder.
How ironic! Jewish tradition requires that, if necessary, a person must be willing to surrender some of his or her liberty in order to properly fulfill a ritual that celebrates freedom. This suggests that the liberation that we celebrate on Passover isn’t just freedom from physical oppression. It is the spiritual liberation that comes from serving God, a freedom that transcends our material circumstances. A central message of the Passover holiday is that even under difficult circumstances, and as long as our spirits cling to God, we cannot be enslaved.
Andrew Warmflash is the rabbi of the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre.