Drinking the Four Cups and Preparing the Seder - Rabbi Michael Shlomo Avishid shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lema’an Yishme’u,” a podcast from the Chabad Halacha Institute.

00:09 Speaker 2 In the first class, we discussed the Torah mitzvos of Seder night: the mitzvah of telling the story of the Exodus from Egypt—the Haggadah, essentially—and the mitzvah of eating matzah. Now, in this class, we’ll cover as many details of Seder night as we can. First, it’s important to emphasize that Pesach is a Yom Tov. Everyone knows that we light Shabbos candles, and the details are explained in section 263 of Orach Chayim. The details of lighting Yom Tov candles are explained at the end of section 514, as is well known. Since this is Seder night, it’s Pesach, candle-lighting is part of it too. Everyone knows the blessings and Shehecheyanu recited on the first night of Pesach. But something people are sometimes less careful about is this: everyone knows that on Shabbos, and on Yom Tov too, we should benefit from the candles throughout the meal. As the Alter Rebbe writes at the beginning of section 263, the primary candles over which we recite the blessing are those on the table, which contribute to the joy and pleasure of Shabbos. It’s true that joy is not stated as a requirement for Shabbos, even though the Sifri says, “And on the day of your rejoicing.” But the more light there is, the more it adds to the pleasure and honor of Shabbos. We won’t go into all the reasons for lighting Shabbos candles here—whether for peace in the home, pleasure, or honor. But it’s clear that it’s important for the Shabbos candles to be on the table so we can benefit from them throughout the meal. The Alter Rebbe writes this both in section 263 and in section 273, where he discusses how sometimes it’s hard to stay at the table because it’s hot and people want to go out into the courtyard. Even so, he mentions that ideally we make sure the Shabbos candles remain lit throughout the meal, sometimes even until we go to sleep, so that no one trips over a stone. But having them lit throughout the meal is important. So this matters on Pesach too. If

02:39 Speaker 2 we don’t think about it ahead of time, we’ll use ordinary candles, the kind we use on Shabbos and Yom Tov, and they won’t last until we reach Shulchan Orech. The Haggadah takes a long time, with everything we say, so ordinary candles will generally burn out at the beginning or in the middle of Shulchan Orech. We need to pay attention to this important detail and make sure we have long-lasting candles. If we haven’t arranged that for all the candles, then at least for a few of them—two of them. According to halacha, one candle is enough, but it’s worth paying attention to this detail of the Yom Tov candles on Seder night. We mentioned that they should be on the table. That’s what it says in the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch and in the poskim. Often, though, that’s hard to put into practice because there are small children, and it makes people nervous. The table is always large, sometimes there are lots of salads, and small children might pull the tablecloth. So there’s some concern. In that case, the main thing is that we can see the candles from the table. We put them somewhere nearby, where they’re visible from the table. That’s always good to know. On the other hand, if it’s a young couple and there’s no concern and there’s enough room, or a family whose children are already grown and they have a large table, it’s always good to put the candles on the table itself. On Seder night, that’s clearly even harder, because there’s a Seder plate, sometimes several Seder plates, sometimes sons, and often many things on the table. All of that makes this hiddur harder to observe. So here too, the candles can be placed somewhere in the living room where they’re visible from the table. But the main thing I wanted to emphasize is how long the candles burn, because sometimes we don’t pay enough attention to that. Of course, on Seder night there are the four cups. As for Kiddush, it’s known that the Rebbe’s Kiddush cup was always to the right of the Seder plate. If the Seder plate is placed here, then the cup is generally placed to its right. That was something the Rebbe was particular about. Also, as we mentioned in the previous class, the Seder plate is arranged before Kiddush. The Rebbe himself cites this in the Haggadah in the name of Mishbetzos Zahav, the Pri Megadim on section 486. The Rebbe would even arrange the Seder plate while standing, wearing his gartel, and doing it with great seriousness. He would put in the bottom matzah—the matzos were concave, with the hollow facing upward like a vessel. So he would put in the first matzah, and they say the Rebbe would also name each thing as he did it: this is the matzah of Yisroel. Then he would put in the second, middle matzah, which is Levi, and above that, Kohen. Others do it the other way around: Kohen, Levi, Yisroel in the same positions, but in reverse order. We begin at the bottom, in the order Yisroel, Levi, Kohen—Yilach rather than Kli, which stands for Kohen, Levi, Yisroel. For us it’s in the form of Yilach. Then, of course, the matzos are placed in the Seder plate. It’s true that the Haggadah says that in the Rebbe’s household, only the Rebbe had a Seder plate, not the others at the table. But the straightforward meaning is when one is eating at the Rebbe’s table. Well, if someone has a chassidic feeling that he’s at the Rebbe’s table, that’s not what I’m talking about. In principle, at home, each person has a plate underneath, places the matzos on it, and separates each matzah from the next with a cloth. Nowadays

04:46 Speaker 2 The living room, so they can be seen from the table. But the main thing I wanted to emphasize is how long the candles need to burn; sometimes people don’t pay enough attention to that. On Seder night, of course, there are the four cups. Regarding Kiddush in general, it’s known that the Rebbe’s Kiddush cup was always to the right of the Seder plate. If the plate was placed here, the cup would generally be over here, on its right. That was something the Rebbe was careful about. Also, as we mentioned in the previous class, the Seder plate is arranged before Kiddush, as the Rebbe himself cites in the Haggadah from the Mishbetzos Zahav of the Pri Megadim, in siman 486. The Rebbe would arrange it standing up, wearing a gartel, and do it with seriousness. He would put in the bottom matzah. The matzos are actually curved, with a hollow, and the hollow faces upward, like a vessel. So that’s the first matzah, and they also say that the Rebbe would say what each thing was as he did it: this is the matzah of Yisroel. Then he would put in the second, middle matzah, which is Levi, and above that, Kohen. Others do it the other way around: Kohen, Levi, Yisroel in the same positions, but in reverse order. We start from the bottom, in the order Yisroel, Levi, Kohen, rather than Kohen, Levi, Yisroel. Kohen, Levi, Yisroel forms the acronym Keli, while for us the order is Yelech. Then, of course, the matzos are placed on a plate. It’s true that the Haggadah says that in the Rebbe’s household, only the Rebbe had a Seder plate, not the others at the table. But the plain meaning is when eating at the Rebbe’s table. Now, if someone has a chassidic feeling that he’s at the Rebbe’s table, that’s not what I’m talking about. But as a rule, in our homes each person has a plate underneath, places the matzos on it, and has a cloth separating each matzah. Today

07:01 Speaker 2 there are cloth holders sold ready-made, with sewn-together pockets for the matzos. The items—the simanim—we place on the Seder plate follow the Arizal’s arrangement, not the arrangement given in the Shulchan Aruch. Most commercially available Seder plates follow the Arizal: the zeroa goes on the right, the egg on the left, and the maror in the middle. Below the zeroa, on the right, goes the charoses, and on the left goes the karpas. They’re all arranged in that pattern of three points, and at the bottom goes the chazeres—which, for us, is maror again. We arrange it that way, and then everything is ready to begin the Seder meal. Of course, the Shulchan Aruch gives a clear ruling not to linger in shul, but to get home early and begin the Seder as quickly as possible once it’s after nightfall, as we explained in the first class. That way, the children can stay at the Seder table for as long as possible. So our Seder plate is ready, and then we have Kadesh, Urchatz, beginning with Kiddush. Kiddush is one of the four cups, so now we’ll discuss a few details needed to fulfill the enactment of the Sages. It’s a rabbinic mitzvah, and even a poor person who begs from door to door is obligated. Every single person must have four cups. If we have neighbors or other people who can’t afford them, we all need to give Pesach funds and make sure everyone has everything they need to fulfill the mitzvah of the four cups. So we have this rabbinic mitzvah of the four cups, whose details are explained at length in section 472, and we’ll mention some of them. First, the cup must hold at least a revi’is. Now, what does it mean for a cup to hold a revi’is? Of course, there are differing opinions, according to the view of the Tzlach or the commonly accepted view of the Rav

09:15 Speaker 2 Chaim Naeh. In practice, that means a reviis is 86 milliliters, which, in grams, is simply 86 grams. Very, very easy. In any case, I suggest that everyone keep a digital scale at home as well. It’s excellent, and it doesn’t cost much. You can weigh the matzos, as we discussed in the previous class, weigh the maror, and prepare the kezaysim so you know for certain that you have the required amounts. You can also take the cup, weigh it empty, weigh it full, and see the difference in grams. That way, you can easily know how much the cup holds. If you know what the cup itself weighs and how much more it weighs filled with water, you’ll know exactly. So the measure is 86 grams. That’s straightforward: to begin with, a cup holding 86. But it’s also very advisable to have a little more. Some use 90, and some even use 100 grams. The simple reason is that we fill the cup to the brim, as stated in the halachic authorities, and often, when we pick it up to make the brachah, some spills. It doesn’t always retain exactly what we poured in. So if we take a cup that holds exactly 86 grams—it isn’t a large cup—but if it holds exactly that, it’s quite possible that we won’t be able to drink a full reviis as we should ideally do. We haven’t yet discussed exactly how much one needs to drink. That’s why it’s advisable to use a slightly larger cup, so we can be sure of fulfilling the mitzvah properly. Now, of course, the cups must also be drunk while reclining, as we mentioned in the first class. For each of the four cups, we customarily make the brachah Borei Pri Hagafen, treating each more or less as a separate mitzvah, and all of them must be drunk

11:16 Speaker 2 while reclining. If we mistakenly drank without reclining—it takes just a moment of forgetfulness for that to happen—then, as a rule, we repeat the second cup, but not the first, third, or fourth. If we explicitly stipulated that we would drink more afterward—which we generally don’t do after the first cup—but if we stipulated that, should we make a mistake, we could drink afterward, then we can repeat the first cup as well. But that doesn’t happen very often, because if we’ve thought about it beforehand, then, with Hashem’s help, no one will forget and drink without reclining. Still, it’s worth knowing this detail. So now, how much must we drink? When the Sages discuss Yom Tov and Shabbos, the term they use is melo lugmav—a cheekful. For an average person, that works out to more or less the majority of a reviis. For a larger person, it can be more. Someone who is two meters tall and has a large mouth—his own melo lugmav, the amount that fills one cheek, might be more than the majority of a reviis. But for an average person, it’s more or less the majority of a reviis. For a small child or someone of short stature, a cheekful could obviously be less than that. Incidentally, the Alter Rebbe rules in section 190 that, for a small child, his own melo lugmav is sufficient for Kiddush. Now, regarding the four cups, the Sages don’t use the term melo lugmav. Instead, they say to drink four cups. Since the wording is “cups,” if I have a cup that holds several reviis-measures, perhaps I have to drink the entire cup, because the Sages said that one must drink four cups. That’s how the Ramban understood it. He understood that this doesn’t mean drinking a cheekful four times from a cup; rather, one must drink the four cups themselves. And there are opinions that what is required here is not to drink

13:07 Speaker 2 a cheekful four times from a cup. Rather, one must drink the four cups. Some opinions say this means drinking each cup to the bottom. Others say it means drinking most of the cup. And others say: No, what does “a cup” mean? An ordinary cup holds a reviis. So when the Sages say “four cups,” they mean that you can’t use one cup, drink a cheekful from it four times, and thereby fulfill your obligation. They wanted there to be four cups, but each cup is a reviis. In that view, the halachah doesn’t actually change: the amount to drink is still melo lugmav. That is how the Tur presents it: what one needs to drink that night is the majority of a reviis—a cheekful—and no more. So we have several opinions. Why am I mentioning all of them? Not to confuse you, but so you’ll know that each opinion is reflected, one way or another, in the practical ruling here. It’s very important to emphasize that the wording used by the Ran, the Alter Rebbe, and the Magen Avraham is “the majority of a reviis.” Usually, the term used is melo lugmav, and we know that for an average person, melo lugmav works out to the majority of a reviis. But here, the wording is “the majority of a reviis.” Therefore, one must be careful to drink at least that much. If someone is short, he should drink the majority of a reviis rather than simply relying on his own cheekful, because for a smaller-than-average person, that cheekful is less than the majority of a reviis. So the majority of a reviis is the clear minimum. Now, what is our ruling? In section 472, paragraph 19, the Alter Rebbe discusses this at length. The Shulchan Aruch, too, cites both opinions—the Tur’s and the Ramban’s. As a matter of basic halachah, one should drink a full reviis ideally, and at least the majority of a reviis; with that, one fulfills the basic obligation. But the Alter Rebbe

15:00 Speaker 2 and the Magen Avraham, along with many other halachic authorities, took the Ramban’s view into account as the ideal practice. They said that if we have a large cup, we should finish the whole cup. So it’s wise to plan ahead. Since we should ideally take the Ramban’s view into account—even though it isn’t required by the basic halachah—we shouldn’t take a very large cup. If we do, we may be able to fulfill the obligation according to the Tur, but it will be difficult to finish the whole cup and satisfy the Ramban’s view. So the best thing is to take a cup that holds more or less a reviis—as we said, a little more, 90 or 100 milliliters—and finish the whole cup. That way, we take the Ramban’s view into account. Someone who finds this difficult, and certainly someone who is ill, can rely on the basic halachah and drink a reviis, or at least the majority of a reviis, as we mentioned. But ideally, if we take a cup that holds a reviis, there’s no reason not to finish it. It isn’t really that hard. Now, how do we drink this cup? This is very important. Besides reclining, there’s another important point. As we mentioned regarding the matzos and the maror in the previous class, there is a concept of consuming them all at once. Here, the idea is to drink quickly—not to split it into several rounds of drinking. That is the Alter Rebbe’s wording. There is much discussion about whether he means that at least the majority of a reviis should be drunk in one gulp, one swallow. But many argue and demonstrate that this isn’t necessarily what he means. Rather, he is coming to rule out something else: in section 170 of the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, there is a very well-known section. It is missing from our edition of the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, but there it discusses the laws of proper conduct.

16:49 Speaker 2 during the meal. One aspect of this is how to drink during the meal: one should not drink quickly, like a glutton. So how does one drink a revi’is? Ordinarily, the recommended way is to drink a revi’is in two drinks: take a drink, pause, and then drink again. You don’t necessarily have to put the cup down—that detail isn’t the point. The point is that a person doesn’t drink the entire revi’is in one go. There is a pause between the two drinks. We’ll discuss this further when we talk about the time allowed for drinking the cups: the time it takes to drink a revi’is. But here, the idea was to rule out that sort of pause. So the way we drink the cup is to drink the whole cup at once. As the Rebbe’s Haggadah explicitly says, the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch speaks primarily about drinking most of the revi’is—or the revi’is—at once, without a pause. And although we are stringent about drinking the entire cup, it does not say there that the entire cup must be drunk at once. But that wording does appear in the explanations in the Rebbe’s Haggadah: one should drink all of it at once. So it is best to take a small cup, as we said, that holds a little more than a revi’is, and drink the whole cup at once. What does “at once” mean? Not that we take one enormous gulp, but that we don’t stop drinking until we finish the cup, and only then put it down. Of course, it will take several swallows, but without pauses between them—one continuous drink. We drink normally, without stopping until the end. That is the recommended way to fulfill the mitzvah in the best manner, and it is worth publicizing this to men and also

18:52 Speaker 2 to women. Since a woman is obligated in all these matters just as a man is, they too should take small cups and drink the whole amount in several swallows, without stopping even once. Now, that is what we do ideally. Why do we drink so quickly? Ordinarily, a person who does that is considered a glutton, as it says in section 170. Many have answered that here it is because of our love for the mitzvah. Now, another important point: as we said, eating matzah must be done within at least the time it takes to eat a pras. The question is what the time limit is for drinking, where one must drink at least a revi’is, as we said, or, according to the basic law, most of a revi’is. What is the time limit for drinking? This is discussed in many places. One is in the laws of Yom Kippur, section 612. Sometimes, if a person is ill and in some danger, we can permit him to drink or eat on Yom Kippur. That brings us to the concept of eating and drinking in measured amounts. Eating and drinking do not combine with each other, but separate amounts of drink do combine, as do separate amounts of food. So there the question is how long a person must wait between drinks so that they do not combine to make him liable under Torah law for eating on Yom Kippur. Well, what does “under Torah law” mean here? Even half the required amount is forbidden by Torah law—that comes up specifically in the discussion of Yom Kippur, on page 74, with Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish—but he would not be liable to kareis. That is why they discuss it there. And there we find the well-known disagreement between the Rambam and the Raavad: is the time within which drinks combine the time it takes to drink a revi’is? That is the Rambam’s view. According to that view, for the drinks to combine in our case, one must drink them within the time it takes to drink a revi’is, which is just a few moments. That is

20:57 Speaker 2 the time it takes a person to drink a revi’is in two drinks, with a short pause between them. It could be a matter of a few seconds—fifteen seconds, thirty seconds. There is discussion among the later authorities about the exact length of time, but anyone can imagine that drinking a revi’is in two drinks with a pause between them happens quite quickly. So according to the Rambam, that is the time limit for combining the drinks. According to the Raavad, it is the same time limit as for eating: the time it takes to eat a pras. In section 612, the Alter Rebbe writes that in certain cases one can rely on the Rambam’s view. If a person drinks part of the amount and then drinks the rest, with about a minute passing between them—or, according to some, two minutes—that is longer than the time it takes to drink a revi’is, and the two drinks do not combine. But as is well known, in Seder Birchos Hanehenin the Alter Rebbe rules differently from what he wrote in the Luach, which he wrote before Seder Birchos Hanehenin. In the Luach, he indeed ruled concerning blessings over food and drink according to the Rambam. That means that very often we cannot say an after-blessing over tea or coffee. In Seder Birchos Hanehenin, however, which represents the Alter Rebbe’s later conclusion, he ruled according to the Raavad: the time limit is the time it takes to eat a pras. Therefore, one can often say an after-blessing over a hot drink if it was drunk within that time. As we said, for example, the Tzemach Tzedek’s view is six minutes, though ideally three minutes; so one can sometimes imagine managing to meet the requirement. It is known that the She’eiris Yehudah, the Alter Rebbe’s brother, asked him why he ruled according to the Raavad here, regarding blessings over food and drink, while regarding Yom Kippur he ruled differently and relied on the Rambam. So he answered that there is a difference between the amount relevant to Yom Kippur, which is a cheekful, and the requirement to drink a revi’is for a blessing over food or drink. In other words, there is a whole, very interesting discussion here. Now, regarding our case, the Alter Rebbe also brings this up in section 472 and says that ideally, for the drinks to combine, one should take no longer than the time it takes to drink a revi’is.

22:52 Speaker 2 That helps us understand one reason we drink so quickly. We drink without stopping in the middle. We don’t drink some, put the cup down, and then drink again; we keep drinking until we finish the cup, without a pause. This takes into account the Rambam’s view that, for the drinks to combine, no more than the time it takes to drink a revi’is may pass. But the Alter Rebbe rules there that after the fact, if a person did not manage that and drank his revi’is within the time it takes to eat a pras, even though that is longer than the time it takes to drink a revi’is, he has fulfilled his obligation, relying on the Raavad’s view. He has fulfilled his obligation. The exception he gives is the second cup, similar to what we said about failing to drink while reclining. With the second cup, it is advisable to drink it again. So one must be very careful to drink the second cup especially quickly. Otherwise, one will have to drink it again, because the Alter Rebbe took the Rambam’s view into account in this matter and required it to be repeated. So that is regarding drinking. But as I said, in practice we should take small cups holding a little more than a revi’is and drink the entire cup each time, both to take the Ramban’s view into account and, of course, regarding the cup for Birchas Hamazon, where we said that according to the basic law one can fulfill the obligation with a cheekful and most of a revi’is. This applies to all the cups except the cup

24:51 Speaker 2 the one over which you need to recite an after-blessing—the cup used for Birchas Hamazon. With that cup, you certainly need to drink a revi’is, as the Alter Rebbe already mentions in section 190. But as we said, we drink all the cups. Now, what goes into the cup? Wine. What kind of wine? Everyone is familiar with the laws in section 272 about which wines are acceptable. We won’t go through all the details now. As for cooked or uncooked wine, of course shluchim often choose cooked wine. Many people come to their Seder nights, and sometimes non-Jews come too. Now, it’s true that we don’t invite non-Jews. There’s a well-known law in the laws of Yom Tov, section 512: you may invite a non-Jew for Shabbos, but not for Yom Tov. Here, though, they aren’t invited. They invite themselves; they show up. So, in practice, the shluchim have everything covered: they often prepare everything before the Seder, so there isn’t much concern that they might prepare extra food for them, and they haven’t invited them. It’s also something they can’t really control. Sometimes these people end up coming because they accompany Jews who come to our events. Several halachic authorities mention that one should try not to give them matzos from the Seder plate, since an uncircumcised person and a non-Jew may not eat the Pesach offering, and these matzos are somewhat a remembrance of the Pesach offering. So several authorities wrote that it’s best not to give them the middle matzos, the matzos from the Seder plate. If possible, one can give them other matzos instead, but sometimes that can’t be controlled. That’s why, as I said, shluchim often prefer cooked wine. In halachah, if the cooked wine is better than the uncooked wine, sometimes you choose it. If not, you specifically choose the uncooked wine. As for wine versus grape juice, which many people ask about,

26:48 Speaker 2 the Shulchan Aruch, section 272, subsection 2, clearly rules in accordance with the Gemara in Bava Basra: a person may squeeze a cluster of grapes and make Kiddush over the juice. There is no problem with the fact that it has not become wine. Still, what does it say in the laws of Shabbos? It explicitly says that the preferred way to fulfill the mitzvah is to make Kiddush over aged wine. The plain meaning of the Magen Avraham and of the Alter Rebbe at the beginning of section 272 is that “aged wine” means wine, not grape juice. Why? Because if grape juice remains in its barrel for a long time—thirty or forty days—it eventually ferments and develops alcohol. It becomes intoxicating wine, unlike before. So when it says that a person may squeeze a cluster of grapes and make Kiddush, that means that halachically one may make Kiddush over grape juice. But ideally, the preferred way is with wine. And everyone knows the remarkable story from an event that was not at all remarkable—really, not at all—when the Rebbe had a heart attack on Simchas Torah 5738. They wanted to give the Rebbe something to drink after the heart attack. The Rebbe said he would not drink without a sukkah—it was Shemini Atzeres—and he would not drink without Kiddush. Then they suggested that someone else make Kiddush. The Rebbe did not want that; he wanted to make Kiddush himself, as, of course, everyone normally makes Kiddush for themselves. They suggested grape juice, and the Rebbe said, “Kiddush macht men oif vayn”—you make Kiddush over wine. So this is certainly etched in our minds, and we are very particular, ideally, to make Kiddush over wine. But it’s important to know that, according to the basic law, there is no problem making Kiddush over grape juice. Women, children, and anyone who finds wine difficult can certainly use grape juice. Some people had concerns thirty or forty years ago when they saw the... The process has changed somewhat today, but

28:52 Speaker 2 there was a process that actually altered the... the wine, and also prevented it from fermenting. Even today, they don’t allow it to ferment. After all, if we squeezed grapes for juice and put it in a bottle, it would eventually develop alcohol. But they use various chemical methods, or other methods, to remove the grape juice’s ability to ferment, so it remains grape juice indefinitely. That raised the question of whether it loses the status that calls for the blessing Borei Pri Hagafen, whether it becomes something new, and whether one can make Kiddush over it. In the end, most halachic authorities hold that one can make Kiddush over it, so grape juice can also be used for the Four Cups. The Pri Chadash, in section 472, cites a view from one of the authorities that he himself rejects. The idea is that since the Seder must be conducted in a manner expressive of freedom—and there is also an interesting law that everyone should choose good, pleasant wine, as brought in the halachic authorities and the Shulchan Aruch, wine we enjoy, because everything we do on this night should express freedom—this applies especially to the Four Cups, which commemorate the four expressions of Geulah. We should certainly choose wine that we like and enjoy drinking, and quality wine if possible, but of course it must be strictly kosher for Pesach, meeting all standards. Grape juice, though, is also a halachic option for women and for anyone who finds wine difficult. You can’t bring proof from the well-known Gemara in Pesachim, also quoted in the Shulchan Aruch, that Rabbi Yehudah bar Ilai’s temples hurt until Shavuos because he drank wine even though it was very difficult for him. People ask: Why didn’t he think of that? Why does the Shulchan Aruch bring it? There’s grape juice—what’s the problem? Why put himself through

30:42 Speaker 2 so much and force himself to drink wine? It’s very simple: in those days, they didn’t have today’s methods for stopping grape juice from turning into wine. Everyone knows when grapes grow in the Holy Land, especially in those days. Today they import some from various places, but around Pesach there were no fresh grapes to squeeze for grape juice. Grapes were available around Tishrei and a little afterward. So all they had on hand was wine. Since wine is so important and we don’t forgo it, if that’s what’s available, we drink it; we don’t choose chamar medinah instead. Now, if someone has no wine, there is a novel point here regarding the Seder night: chamar medinah can be used even at night. That’s a significant novelty, because in the Shulchan Aruch’s laws of Shabbos, also in section 272, the ruling is that someone who has no wine on Friday night makes Kiddush over the challah. Chamar medinah is discussed more in connection with Shabbos day, because during the day we don’t make Kiddush over bread, as the Alter Rebbe explains there, I think in subsection 11. But at the Seder, someone who has no wine—or someone who is seriously ill, for whom drinking wine would actually be dangerous—does not drink wine, and there is the option of chamar medinah. And by the way, words of Torah are sparse in one place and rich in another. So when you want a proper understanding of the topic of chamar medinah, it isn’t enough to know the laws of Shabbos in section 272, subsection 9 and the Kuntres Acharon. You also need to know the end of section 472 in the laws of Pesach, and there are details in section 190 that you can draw from different places to build a complete picture,

32:31 Speaker 2 but that’s a class in its own right—a separate subject: chamar medinah and to what extent it may be used. Certainly, when wine is available, there is never any question of using chamar medinah—not on Shabbos, not on Friday night, and not after Shabbos. When there is wine, we use wine. But as far as grape juice is concerned, using wine is only a preferred enhancement. What the Pri Chadash wanted to suggest in the name of one of the authorities was that, since the Seder night must express freedom, the wine should bring joy and should be intoxicating. In practice, though, as I said, one can be lenient and use grape juice for women and children, while men use wine. What color should the wine be? There is, of course, the well-known view of the Ramban that white wine is problematic, both for Kiddush on Shabbos and Yom Tov and for the Seder night. Some authorities take his view into account as an ideal practice, and many are careful to use specifically red wine. The Alter Rebbe does not mention this at all in section 272, in the laws of Shabbos. He writes, “We make Kiddush over white wine”—a subsection saying that one may make Kiddush over white wine. He doesn’t say that it’s better to use red wine. This is the first section in which he discusses Kiddush, and he doesn’t even hint that using red wine is an enhancement. He says, “We make Kiddush over white wine,” period. Only in the laws of Pesach, in section 472, subsection 26, I think, does the Alter Rebbe explicitly write that for the Seder night, since the wine also recalls the blood in which Pharaoh—may his name and memory be erased—would bathe, we specifically use red wine. If someone doesn’t have red wine, he can sometimes color his white wine by adding a little red wine if he doesn’t have enough, and that way he can be careful to make Kiddush over

34:18 Speaker 2 Red wine, and it is well known that the prohibition against coloring does not apply to food, as the halachic authorities explain at length in section 321 of the laws of Shabbos. So that covers the law of the four cups. As for children—and this also relates to women—we said that the foods and drinks we mentioned need to be consumed during the meal. Of course, we did not emphasize that a woman does not need to recline at all. Our custom is that women do not recline, even if they are very distinguished—and all our women are very distinguished, especially in these later generations, as the era of Moshiach draws closer, when “a woman will encompass a man,” and women’s standing is rising more and more everywhere. Nevertheless, the custom is not to recline, because we rely, as is well known, on the view of the Raavyah that nowadays reclining is not required at all. So women are exempt and do not recline. Children, however—the boys—are taught to recline. Some require this only from age nine, but why not from the age of education? Now, regarding teaching children to drink the four cups: the halachic authorities generally discuss the age of education in many places in Shulchan Aruch, in the laws of tzitzis and tefillin, the laws of sukkah in sections 639 and 640, and so on. In many places, the age is roughly what the Rebbe would often say in his sichos: five or six. Five if the child is sharp; six for a child who is not necessarily sharp—though I doubt any parent would want to describe his son as not sharp. So, roughly from age five. But there is something a little different here. In both section 343 and here in section 472, the Alter Rebbe says that teaching a child about each cup depends on the child’s ability to understand its meaning. There are things a child can understand. A child might not grasp the concept of Kiddush so early—of sanctifying

36:17 Speaker 2 Shabbos—since the first cup is Kiddush, and he does not understand what it means to sanctify it. But he has been told about the Exodus from Egypt in preschool, and that he does understand. So the Alter Rebbe explains that teaching a child to observe the mitzvah of each cup depends on that cup’s content. Many who compile practical halachic guidance cite the Alter Rebbe on this. But rather than make it complicated by asking exactly what age that means—four, three, five—it is worth remembering that there is another view. It is not brought by the Alter Rebbe, but it is brought in Chok Yaakov, and many follow it today: even very young children who can simply hold a cup should have one, whether they are four or three, even if they have not reached five, the more commonly cited age of education. So even a little three-year-old can be given a small cup, not necessarily one that holds a revi’is, as Chok Yaakov writes. He cites leading halachic authorities for this, including the Maharil and others. So it is worth being stringent about this. If you are not sure whether the children have reached the age of education, give them cups. And certainly a five-year-old can have a cup that holds a revi’is. You do not have to tell him to drink all of it, even if it is grape juice. Sometimes drinking that much grape juice is a little hard for a young child, so you can certainly rely on his own melo lugmav—enough to fill his cheek. We said that according to our practice, one needs at least most of a revi’is, but for a young child, it is his own melo lugmav, along the lines of what the Alter Rebbe writes about this law in section 190. That covers the four cups. As for maror, another important rabbinic mitzvah, we eat the maror later, but to discuss it we first have to jump back a little

38:05 Speaker 2 to karpas, because the two are connected. We say the blessing borei pri ha’adamah over the karpas and intend for it to cover the maror as well, so that we do not say borei pri ha’adamah again over the maror. Today there is a major question about hydroponically grown produce: can it be used for maror at all, when it did not grow in soil? If it were at least grown in a pot without a drainage hole, there would be soil, and it would grow normally and draw nourishment from it. True, for the laws of terumos and maasros, and the laws of Shabbos in section 336, something growing in a pot without a hole is sometimes not considered attached to the ground. If it is in a metal or plastic container rather than an earthenware or wooden one, it is not considered to draw nourishment from the ground. With earthenware and wooden containers, there is the well-known dispute between Rashi and Tosafos in Gittin, page 78, and the Alter Rebbe was stringent according to both opinions, as other halachic authorities were. But at least it draws nourishment from soil, whereas hydroponically grown produce does not draw nourishment from soil at all. Some halachic authorities, including Rabbi Wosner and many others, maintain that the blessing is still borei pri ha’adamah, because it is the same kind of produce and has the same taste, and so on. But ultimately, many are concerned that its blessing is shehakol nihyeh bidvaro, and it is also far from clear that one can fulfill the mitzvah with it at the Seder. That also brings us into the question of borei pri ha’adamah. So when buying maror, one should check that it is not grown solely hydroponically. Otherwise, it could be like mushrooms, over which we say shehakol because they do not draw nourishment from the soil, even if the taste may be the same. This is a somewhat new question, and it is not straightforward to be lenient, especially since, with maror, people... People often ask

39:51 Speaker 2 about lettuce: seemingly, it does not taste bitter. The Alter Rebbe asks this in section 473 and answers that when it is left for a long time, the stalks eventually become bitter. Here, it is grown in a different way and may not necessarily reach that point. So it is worth using conventionally grown maror, whose blessing is borei pri ha’adamah. And so we take karpas. Men in Chabad generally have the custom of taking an onion. Some following other approaches are hesitant to use onion, because it is not really something people eat on its own. They eat a little of it with bread or tomato, but to eat it by itself... Perhaps in Russia people were more accustomed to eating onions on their own. According to stories, when it was minus twenty degrees outside, some people would eat a whole onion before going out, and it would warm up their whole system. So some have had reservations about using it. But there is the Alter Rebbe’s ruling. Anyone who studies the laws of blessings over food sees that there is no question here. The Alter Rebbe rules that even something normally eaten raw together with something else is fully subject to the blessing borei pri ha’adamah. Some have suggested taking a small onion, because it is less sharp and that resolves the question. But that can sometimes make things worse: if they take a whole small onion, the entire round onion, then even if it is less than a kezayis, it may require an after-blessing. And, as is well known, section 473 rules that one should take less than a kezayis of karpas to avoid the question of whether an after-blessing is needed, and whether the borei pri ha’adamah then covers the maror. So in Chabad we use a regular onion. Women who often find onion difficult are accustomed to taking potato.

41:34 Speaker 2 And there, the requirements for karpas are not so strict. Maror is different: it has to be something Chazal actually define as maror. In Shulchan Aruch, section 473, five kinds of maror are listed. One is even called endive. That sounds like the endive we have today, but the poskim say that names change somewhat. It is not at all certain that today’s endive is the endive they meant. So in practice, we are left with just two kinds of maror. We have the well-known lettuce, with its various types. True, it can sometimes even be a little sweet, or at least not bitter. But as they say, it is maror: if it were left in the ground, the stalks would become very bitter, and it can be used to fulfill the obligation. Then there is horseradish, which we can still identify, and that too is kosher maror. Strictly speaking, one can take a kezayis consisting of half a kezayis of lettuce and half a kezayis of horseradish and fulfill the obligation. These, then, are the two kinds to take. Of course, where possible, it is worth getting specially grown lettuce that greatly reduces the problem of insects. Otherwise, we need to clean it in soapy water for about three minutes. Vinegar is not advisable, because it can cause rapid pickling. As is known from Yoreh Deah, section 105, strong vinegar can cause rapid pickling to the depth of a peel. It depends on the strength of the vinegar. There is the apparent contradiction between sections 104 and 101. The Alter Rebbe, in section 648, in the laws of esrog and the Four Species, distinguishes between strong and weak vinegar. But to avoid getting into those questions, use soapy water. That helps wash off anything that might stick to the lettuce—the little creatures, the tiny flies that

43:38 Speaker 2 cling to it. This can remove them, but afterward you have to examine the lettuce in sunlight, making sure there are no signs of something crawling, no tunnel inside a leaf, and no worms. By contrast, when you buy specially grown lettuce, you need at least to clean it well, soak it in soapy water for about three minutes, rinse it, and give it a quick check to see that everything is all right. You do not need to examine it in sunlight. That is its advantage. As for the horseradish, of course it needs to be prepared before Pesach and grated. It is true that the Rebbe also took a solid piece, so anyone who wants to follow what the Rebbe did can leave a solid piece as well. But the horseradish should be grated beforehand. In the laws of Yom Tov, section 504, although you can use a grater for carrots and various other things on Yom Tov, a grater may not be used for things customarily prepared in large quantities, such as horseradish. When people prepare horseradish, they often make enough for several days. So you cannot use a grater for it on Yom Tov; it has to be grated and prepared beforehand. Now, the Chabad custom is specifically to eat both kinds. When we eat maror, we eat both lettuce and horseradish. That is our custom. As for the required amount, as we mentioned in the previous class, in section 486, maror today is a rabbinic obligation. Since it is rabbinic, the measure of a kezayis is a little more than a third of an egg, rather than half an egg. Now, there is air between the leaves, because a leaf is not flat and straight. If we put it into a container holding twenty-seven cubic centimeters, it will not amount to the required measure unless we compress it. So it has to be measured without the air in between, because

45:28 Speaker 2 the air between the leaves certainly does not count toward the volume. Today, that works out to roughly seventeen to twenty grams of lettuce. Its weight is somewhat different from that of water, but that is approximately the amount with which one can fulfill the obligation. In any case, in Chabad the custom is to do somewhat as the Rebbe did. The Rebbe took much more than that—you can weigh it and see how much it is. When eating maror, the Rebbe would take an egg-sized amount of horseradish, which is very, very large. What would he do around it? He would wrap it in lettuce leaves, taking either three small leaves or two large leaves. That was the Rebbe’s maror. In other words, the Rebbe was very particular to take a lot of maror, certainly enough to meet the required measure. But someone who finds that difficult can, of course, take just lettuce, or combine lettuce and horseradish, taking both kinds so that together they weigh approximately twenty grams, and thereby fulfill the obligation. We do not eat maror while reclining; we dip it in charoses. Now, Chabad charoses is made of nuts, apples, and pears. That is the first point. The wine is generally added only afterward, in the saucer under the Rebbe’s cup. The Rebbe wanted the charoses to be dry, partly out of concern for korech. Since apples and pears are quite juicy, you have to add plenty of nuts to make it dry. The Rebbe’s charoses was always dry. And when it was time for maror,

47:31 Speaker 2 he would dip it. He would take a little charoses from the Seder plate, put it in the saucer under his cup, where a little wine would naturally have fallen, and dip it there. That way, the charoses also contained wine, as is customary. After wrapping the horseradish, the Rebbe would dip the lettuce into the charoses in his saucer. Then, as stated in Shulchan Aruch, he would shake the charoses off. There is no issue of gebrokts here, because the maror is eaten on its own. We make the blessing “al achilas maror,” intending it to cover the maror we will later eat in korech as well. We do not make the blessing “borei pri ha’adamah,” because we already made it over karpas. But why shake off the charoses? Both to leave a bitter taste and because its flavor would otherwise seep into the lettuce and sweeten it. So we shake it off; it has nothing to do with gebrokts. That is how it is done. For those who are fond of charoses, eating maror is not exactly the time to enjoy it, since we shake it off. You can have some afterward. Sometimes, after finishing korech, the Rebbe himself would take more lettuce and horseradish, dip them in charoses, and eat them with it. After all, eating charoses on Seder night is also one of the enactments of the Sages. We have to drink four cups, eat the matzos, and eat the charoses and maror too. So if you want to, you can enjoy it afterward. There is a halachah in section 476 not to have too many dips beyond those that are required. We do dip the egg in salt at the very start of the meal, but in the end

49:31 Speaker 2 there will be time to enjoy the charoses—not while eating the maror. After that comes korech. With korech, you certainly have to be careful about gebrokts as well. Now, with Hashem’s help, if we have time, we will also give a class on all the Pesach stringencies. In principle, gebrokts is an issue only when there is water. If something is 100 percent grape juice, 100 percent orange juice, or 100 percent milk—which is somewhat rare today—then, strictly speaking, as when the Rebbe Rashab would dip matzah in milk and so on, there is not really a gebrokts problem. Nevertheless, many are careful not to put anything at all on the matzah. So here too, when eating the maror, there is the concern not to alter its taste, and we also do not want to moisten it. The Rebbe would not take charoses containing wine for korech at all, but dry charoses. And while the Rebbe would dip the maror in the saucer for the maror portion, here he would not dip it. Instead, he would take a little charoses and place it on the lettuce. There, too, he would shake it off, and only then put the lettuce into the matzah. We eat the kezayis of matzah for korech, together with the maror, while reclining. As we mentioned, the required measure can be smaller because, as we discussed in the previous class, section 475, paragraph 18, korech is a rabbinic obligation. The Alter Rebbe therefore rules in section 486 that the required amount is smaller, and the permitted time for eating that amount is also shorter, as we explained at length in section 472. We will not go over

51:19 Speaker 2 We’ve already covered these details sufficiently. We spoke about exactly what goes into the charoses, and we also discussed the karpas. As for the egg, as we mentioned, it goes on the left side, above the matzos. We don’t put dishes on the cloths there, so we place it directly on the cloth covering the matzos, not in a bowl. That means it sometimes wobbles a little, and we don’t want to break the matzos—we’re careful that they stay whole. It’s a bit awkward, but that’s how we do it. Especially since we put the egg there with its shell on, it slips around a bit more on the Seder plate, on top of the matzos, and doesn’t stay in place as well. Without the shell it would be a little easier, but this is our custom. More than that, the Rebbe was very particular that the shell not be cracked. He would take a hard-boiled egg with an uncracked shell, and I’ve heard that on occasions when one cracked, the Rebbe replaced it with another egg. To that extent. So apparently there are reasons for this. We don’t understand the spiritual matters involved, but if the Rebbe did it, there is a reason. That’s how Chabad chassidim do it. And as we mentioned earlier, the egg is the first thing we eat at the beginning of the meal; we dip it in salt. As for the zeroa, in Chabad our custom is to take a chicken neck and roast it very thoroughly, so that practically no meat remains and we won’t come to eat roasted meat—especially since the zeroa is there to commemorate the Pesach offering. So it’s very important to know this detail. We roast it thoroughly, and it is also said of the Frierdiker Rebbe—and this is our custom in Chabad as well—that we scrape off

53:17 Speaker 2 as much as possible. We leave a tiny bit of meat there, but scrape off almost all the meat we can. This is the remembrance of the Pesach offering; together with the egg, it makes up the two cooked foods on the Seder plate. That is our custom. Sometimes, with everything going on—the bedikas chametz the night before, a very busy day of burning the chametz and making preparations, and people going to the rabbi at the last minute to sell their chametz—people forget to prepare the zeroa. Now, we would not eat the zeroa the following day either. In section 476, there is a discussion of differing customs: whether people refrain from eating roasted meat only on the Seder night or on the following day as well. This is brought in tractate Pesachim: in some places they had this custom, and in others they did not. Today our custom is not to eat roasted meat on the Seder night, so that is not the time to roast meat. Perhaps we’ll discuss more details in another class. I just want to pause on the matter of the chicken neck. Since this chicken neck commemorates the Pesach offering, generally no one is going to eat it the next day either. So if someone forgot and did not prepare it, they should take cooked meat and put it in place of the zeroa, or use a boiled chicken neck, but not a roasted one. Since we will not eat it during the rest of Yom Tov, it is forbidden to prepare something on Yom Tov that will not be eaten that day. So we’ll take cooked meat or a boiled chicken neck and put it in its place. But with Hashem’s help, we’ll try not to forget, so that we can follow all the customs. I think we’ll stop here for this class.

55:13 Speaker 2 With Hashem’s help, we’ll try to give another class on selling chametz and bedikas chametz, and another on Pesach stringencies, including a few concepts related to kashering utensils, if possible, G-d willing, bli neder.