walter@pennsy.DEC (09/04/85)
> Some people mistakenly believe that > the spilling of wine during the reading of the ten plagues is in order to > make people feel bad for the poor Egyptians, but if the sages wanted to > put such sadness into the seder they would have done so in the text. > The spilling of the wine is a sign of celebration, just like the > spilling of wine at havdalah (I can't prove it though), just like people > spill champagne on each other when they win the pennant. > "Kol bayit she-ain nishpach bo yayin ka-mayim ayno roeh siman bracha" - > Avi Malek There is a difference between the way in which wine is spilled as a sign of celebration and the way in which wine is "spilled" during the Passover Seder. When wine is spilled in celebration, it is poured until the cup overflows. The abundance of wine which first fills the cup to capacity and then spills over its sides is the sign of complete happiness and "siman bracha" which you describe in your sources. However, in the Passover Seder, wine is not added until it spills over. Instead, wine is removed from filled cups as each of the ten plagues are mentioned. The removal of wine from our cups symbolizes that our happiness in celebrating our freedom cannot be complete (unfilled cups of wine vs. overflowing cups of wine) since many Egyptians were killed as a result of the plagues and the splitting of the sea. Chaya Walter (UUCP: decwrl!dec-rhea!erie!walter)