Four cuts (Haggadah 1320)
The number four in the Haggadah and the Feast
The number four appears frequently in various contexts, in the Haggadah of Passover and in the writings of Chazal (our sages) on Pesach and customs. This figure represents a sort of central theme around which ideas, proverbs, aphorisms and commentary of verses.
1. Kossot arba (four cups of wine)
The custom of four cups of wine that drinks the night of the Seder has its origin in two biblical texts.
In the first, Genesis (ch. 40, v. 11-13), the word cut is repeated four times:
"I had in hand the cup of Pharaoh, I was picking grapes, I expressed to the juice into Pharaoh's cup, and I presented the cup hand of the king ... and thou shalt put Pharaoh's cup in his hand, like you did previously as cupbearer. "
The sale of Joseph into slavery marked the beginning of the enslavement of the children of Israel to Pharaoh in the same way his release from prison, consecutive to the butler's dream, symbolizes the redemption of people from slavery in Egypt.
is why the sages issued, stated that he must drink the night of the Seder four cups of wine because four references to the word "cut" also symbolizes the drink these cuts hello, as it is written in Psalms (ch. 116, v. 13):
"I lift up the cup of salvation. "
In the second text, Exodus (ch. 6, v. 6-7), there are four different words to express the issue:
" ... I want to escape the tribulations of Egypt and deliver you from their bondage, and I shall make you free with an outstretched arm, with dire punishment. I adopt it for people ... "
(" vehotzéti, vehitzalti, vega'alti, velaka'hti)
- for each type of issue, you drink a cup.
There is also a well-known discussion in the Gemara, in later sources, on the establishment of a fifth bowl to commemorate the end of issue following the four others already mentioned:
"Then, I bring you into the country ..." ("vehévéti)
(Exodus, ch. 6, v. 8).
Some teachers, including Rabbi Tarfon, had adopted the custom of drinking a fifth cup at the recitation of Hallel, in Eretz Israel, Babylon, and Europe. Today, we pay a fifth cup, the cup of Elijah, which is associated with the hope of redemption of our people.
According to one version, the tradition of the four sections was instituted during the Second Temple period to mark the deliverance of Israel from the four powers that we have oppressed: Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Rome.
The four sections are also associated with the four seasons. Nissan, the first calendar month after the Bible, is the appropriate month for drink a glass of wine in honor of each season.
According Abarbanel, drink the first cup at the Kiddush, the second after reading the main part of the Haggadah, which ends with the blessing of "Geula (Redemption), the third after of thanksgiving after the meal and the fourth at the end of the hymn "Nishmat" ("Birkat ha-shir").
2. The four questions
The four questions were intentionally introduced in the Haggadah as we know, to highlight the number four. There are four questions in the Mishna, but they are not quite identical to our questions and concerns: the matza, maror, the paschal lamb and the act of soaking (Pesachim Treaty, Babylonian Talmud).
However, in the same treatise Pesachim of the Jerusalem Talmud, there are only three questions, presented in a different order: the act of time, the matzah and the paschal lamb. The question regarding the consumption of maror (bitter herbs) is not at all.
Maimonides established five questions concerning:
the act of soaking, the Matzah, the paschal lamb, the maror and being lean.
issues arising in our Haggadah have been made by the Sages, who decided to include only four questions.
3. The four son
There is already an allusion to the four questions son in the Torah:
"And when your son one day, you question by saying: What is that?"
(Exodus, ch. 13, verse 14) The four
son contained in the Haggadah represent the four main types persons:
wise,
the wicked, the simple-minded
and one who does not know to ask questions.
The sage asked about the laws of Passover in order to learn the wicked dissociates itself from the community of Israel and expresses disdain for the laws of Passover, the dull wants a general understanding of what which characterizes the celebration of Passover, and finally, it is our duty to explain Passover to those who do know and ask him to comment on the Haggadah.
4. The number four: stylistic repetitions
In various instances, we find in the Haggadah four consecutive phrases that evoke the same idea each time.
1. In the passage opens with the words "Avadim hayinou" (we were slaves): "Even though we would all be wise, all scholars, all former and all educated men in the Torah ..."
2. In the passage opens with the words "ha-Shem Vayotziénou mid-Mitzraim" (The Lord brought us out of Egypt): "Me personally, me and not an angel, me and not a seraph, and me not a messenger. I am the LORD. "
5. The four matriarchs
In the song "ehad Mid Yodéa "(Who knows One?), the combination appears" Imahot Arba "(the four matriarchs).
6. The four names for Pesach
The Passover has many names but the four best known are:
Chag ha-Pesach ("Passover")
Chag Matzah-ha ("the feast of unleavened bread")
Chag ha-'Herout ("Day Liberty ")
Chag ha-Aviv (" Spring Festival ")
7. Aggadah The four
" By virtue of four things that the children of Israel were freed of Egypt: They did not change their names They changed their language They do not reveal their secrets, they do not abolish the Brit Mila. "
The Haggadah emphasizes that through thousands of years of history Jewish, Jews kept their name - Am Israel - their language - Hebrew - they do not reveal their secrets and observed at all times the mitzvah of circumcision.
8. The Haggadah of four months
In a very famous Haggadah which appears in Midrash Rabbah (Bamidbar Rabbah, 3), Rabbi Akiva explains that the Holy One, blessed be He chooses to bring the children of Israel Egypt in the month most suitable for the exodus.
He did not bring them out in the month of Tammuz - because of the heatwave and drought. He did not bring them out in the month of Tevet - because of the cold. He did not bring them out in the month of Tishrei - because of rain. But he brought them out in the month of Nissan - because it was spring, the season for travel.
we eat matza for the blessing of "motzi.
the matza is eaten to the blessing of "a'hilat matza.
we eat matza with maror according to the custom of Hillel, as it says: "They eat the Passover lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs." (Numbers, ch. 9, v. 11)
matza we eat the Afikoman.
10. Four types of foods on the Seder plate
Karpas
Maror
Matza
Maror between matzot (according to the custom of Hillel )
11. Four blessings
bera'ha The (blessing) - "boron peri ha-adama" called for karpas
The bera'ha - "hamotzi le'hem min ha-Aretz" said for the matza
The bera'ha - the mitzvah of eating matza
The bera'ha - the mitzvah of eating maror.
JAFI
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