[Avodah] The 5th cup

[Zev Sero]

Yesterday I read the Shabbos Hagodol proclamation in the Italian machzor.
Just as on Shabbos Mevorchim and on the Shabbos before the minor fasts
they announce the date of the coming event, "that all, great and small,
should know that we have rosh chodesh on this day", etc.  But unlike those
declarations, this one is a long piyut that includes several midrashim that
I hadn't heard before (the calendar rule of "lo adu rosh velo badu pesach"
was proclaimed by R Eliezer in the days of the second bayis after an
apparition of Hashem Himself; the Jews were miraculously transported to
EY to make the korban pesach and then returned to Egypt in order to leave
it properly).  It also explains the reason for various parts of the seder.
It gives a reason for the four cups, and then it gives a reason for "the
fifth cup that we drink over hallel".   Apparently when and where the piyut
was written, the fifth cup was so standard that it had to be explained
among the other standard parts of the seder.


-- 
Zev Sero               A citizen may not be required to offer a 'good and
zev at sero.name          substantial reason' why he should be permitted to
                        exercise his rights. The right's existence is all
                        the reason he needs.
                            - Judge Benson E. Legg, Woollard v. Sheridan