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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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