Q:
How should one perform the mitzvah of drinking the four cups of wine on leil Seder?
A:
There is a mitzvah D’Rabbonon to drink four cups of wine at the Seder at four specific points in the Seder. Each one adds significance to the bracha or section of the Seder it is associated with.
It is preferable to use red wine for the four cups at the Seder. If there is white wine that’s better quality than the red wine, Ashenazim say that one should have the white wine, while Sephardic practice is to have red wine anyway. However, Mishna Brurah (320:56) cites a dispute whether it is permissible to mix red wine into white wine to color it or one should avoid this.
The Shulchan Aruch O.C. 472:10 says that even if one hates wine or it is harmful to his health he should push himself to have the wine to fulfill the important mitzvah. Mishna Brurah 472:35 explains that one only has to have it if it gives one a headache but not if makes him sick to the point of going to bed for it.
If there are no options and having wine or grape juice would make a person sick in bed he is exempt from drinking the four cups – Mishna Brurah 472:35,
Many authorities say that one may not use grape juice for the Seder, however, if one hates wine or will become ill, then there’s is what to rely on to have grape juice. Others, however, permit having grape juice and adds that lechatchila women and children can use grape juice.
If a person has no wine or grape juice can go to the store and buy grapes and press them and make kiddush on them.
If someone has no wine they should recite kiddush upon the matzah, by reciting kiddush, al achilat matzah, then eat. Then he should eat karpas, start with maggid, continue with maror, and then korech – Shulchan Aruch O.C. 483:1.
If someone doesn’t have wine they should use chamar mdina, an expensive drink of that country. Chamar Medina includes beer or cognac and does not include soda, lemonade, or water. Sephardim hold that coffee, tea, orange juice can not be used as chamar medina. Chamar medina is still relevant today.
The Ashkenazi minhag is to make HaGafen on each cup of wine and a Bracha Achrona only on the last one. The Sephardi minhag is to make HaGefen on the first and third cup of wine and a Bracha Achrona only on the last one. There’s no Bracha Achrona on the first cup even if one knows that one will take longer than Shiur Ikul in explaining the Haggadah.
One may drink wine in between the first, second, and third cups of wine but not between the third and fourth cups. Even though one is permitted to drink between the first and second cup, one should be strict not to drink too much wine so as not to get drunk.According to Ashkenazim, in order to be permitted to drink between the first and second cup one must have had in mind to drink anything that comes later or that the wine was in front of them when he made the bracha (as long one didn’t have in mind not to cover that drink) because in this case no new bracha is needed on the wine between the first and second cup.
It’s permissible to drink beverages other than wine or intoxicating beverages between the first and second cup. It’s permissible to drink between the second and third cup. After drinking the four cups, it is prohibited to drink any other beverages, besides water.If all four cups are drunk at once and not dispersed throughout the Seder in their proper place one doesn’t fulfill his obligation. Everyone at the seder should pick up the cup of Birkat Hamazon during birkat hamazon. Some say that it is sufficient if the one making the zimmun picks up his cup.[
One must lean while drinking the four cups of wine. If for any of the cups one did not, according to Sephardim, one should drink the cup again. According to Ashkenazim, only for the second cup should one drink the cup again.
The practice is that one doesn’t not pour his own cup. In order to demonstrate freedom, we have someone else pour each cup for us. |