[Avodah] Why remove drops from Cup; Ought the cup be topped up?

[Akiva Miller]

.
R' Meir G. Rabi asked:
> Is the Koss filled before being raised for its Berachah?

Rabbi Shimon Eider, on page 271, writes: "The minhag is to add wine to the
cup to replace the wine that was spilled out. Some fill it before 'Rabban
Gamliel'. Others fill it before the brocho 'Asher Gaalanu'." His sources
are the Hagada Kol Dodi (Rav Dovid Feinstein), the siddur Beis Yaakov, and
Kaf Hachayim note 165.

But it seems to me that refilling the kos defeats the purpose of removing
those drops. We remove those drops specifically to demonstrate that the
geulah is, to some extent, incomplete. If so, it would seem to me that this
particular kos should be an exception to the general rule that a kos shel
bracha should be full.

It seems that Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach felt similarly. In Chapter 9 of
the Halichos Shlomo on Moadim, in the Orchos Halacha section, note 241, it
says, "If much was missing (nechsar harbeh) from the kos, his (RSZA)
practice was to refill it before the bracha of Asher Gaalanu." Apparently,
if only a small amount was missing, RSZA felt that it did not need to be
refilled. I try to follow this, by removing drops with my finger, so that
there is less wine in the cup than before, but it still *appears* to be a
full cup.

Akiva Miller
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