[Avodah] Drops of wine

[Zev Sero]

On 27/06/2012 11:36 AM, Akiva Miller wrote:
> And according to those who*reject*  applying Binfol to this case, the
> question is even stronger. What is the point of removing the wine, if
> not to lessen our joy? Please don't respond with "because the wine
> symbolizes the makos", unless you can show how that symbolism developed
> BEFORE the practice of removing these drops began.

How could it have?  If there was no wine separated in the first place,
then how could it have stood for the makos or anything else?

The Maharil says that one should think while pouring that Hashem should
save us from all these plagues and they should come to Hashem's enemies.
In other words it's as much about calling down punishment on our enemies
as it is about diverting it from us.  We're not just getting rid of these
drops and what they symbolise, we're specifically sending them to the
other side.

So to answer your implied question about how and why this minhag was
invented in the first place, the first person who did this would have
been thinking as follows: We are reading about the makos that Hashem
sent to the Mitzrim, so let's act out that punishment they got.  Here,
you Mitzrim, have some blood, have some frogs, have some lice, etc.
So the identification of the drops with the makos was inherent in the
minhag from the very start, when it was just a cute idea that someone
had, perhaps to entertain his children.


The Alter Rebbe explains that "the cup is the symbol of malchus, and
one is using the power of binah to pour out, from the wine that it
contains, the symbol of anger that is in it, into a broken vessel which
symbolises the klipah, which is called "cursed".  What is left symbolises
"the wine that gladdens", so one should not pour it out but add to it.
My de-kabbalised interpretation of that it symbolises responsible drinking:
alcohol is inherently good, but it has an angry aspect that can lead to
evil.  Therefore when one drinks one must use ones intelligence to remove
the anger and direct it to a proper target, while keeping and enjoying the
beneficial aspects.

BTW, the AR's instruction not to pour out the rest of the wine is because
some write to do so, and to rinse out the cup before refilling it, because
one can't say a bracha on a cup of punishment.  So he explains that the
"pur'anus" is davka what was removed, and what remains is good.

Again, though, your question is answered: the point of the pouring is to
separate bad from good, so that which is separated inherently symbolises
the bad.  It's *not* the empty space left in the cup that we're interested
in, so there's no reason not to fill it, and every reason to do so, so that
we have a full cup.

-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon