Community Magazine April 2019

(This text can still be found in the early manuscripts of the Haggadah discovered in the Cairo Genizah.) This question was asked in the times of the Bet Hamikdash , when the seder included the meat of the korban pesach , which had to be roasted and could not be prepared in any other way. After the Bet Hamikdash was destroyed, we no longer bring this sacrifice, and so this question was dropped and replaced by a different question (why we recline at the seder). The Fifth Verse Another missing fifth is the fifth verse in the aforementioned section from Parashat Ki Tavo, which we do not include in the citation of this section at the seder: “He (Hashem) brought us to this place (Israel) and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” Although the Mishnah (Pesahim 10:4) states that we must “complete the entire passage,” we stop before the final verse. What is the meaning of all these “missing fifths” at the seder? The answer might be found in the Torah’s description of Beneh Yisrael ’s condition at the time they left Egypt, saying that they left “ hamushim ” (Shemot 13:18). This word is commonly understood to mean “armed,” but the word “ hamushim ” might also be read as a derivative of the word “ hamesh ” – “five.” This perhaps alludes to the fact that when Beneh Yisrael left Egypt, they were “armed” with the ability to reach a very special level – the fifth level, the level of completion, of living as Gd’s nation in the Land of Israel. Thus, the missing fifths represent the missing element of redemption, which, unfortunately, has yet to unfold. We might wonder, how can we possibly celebrate our freedom, our arrival in the Land of Israel, when we are still in exile? How can we drink the last cup of redemption after having declared at the beginning of the seder, “This year, [we are] slaves, next year, [we will be] free; this year [we are] here, next year [we will be] in the Land of Israel”? The fifth cup, the kos shel Eliyahu , serves to remind us we are still in exile. Let us hope and pray that we can and will very soon drink a fifth cup of wine at the seder night, “ Leshanah haba’ah BiYerushalayim – next year in Jerusalem!” adar II - nissan 5779 april 2019 61