QUESTION: Why does the seder on both of the first two nights of Passover have to start at or after dark? Also why do we use four cups of wine as well as a cup of Elijah?
ANSWER: The Exodus from Egypt took place in the dark of night. The seder is a reliving of that experience that we have been doing for thousands of years. Jewish law mandates that the seder take place at night as the Exodus took place at night.
Furthermore, Jewish law for more than a thousand years has required that the four cups of wine be consumed at night. The very first cup of wine is the Kiddush which is recited as the very first ingredient in the seder ceremony; therefore, the Kiddush has to be also recited after dark for one to fulfill the mitzvah or commandment of the four cups of wine.
Obviously, there are exceptions to these rules — nursing home residents, ill individuals, people who have exceptional circumstances in their lives — all have leniencies extended to them by Jewish law.
I do find it rather ironic that individuals who can stay to the 13th or 14th inning of a ball game out at Kauffman Stadium until midnight or later find it inconvenient to stay up for a seder. This is a once or twice a year experience that should be performed according to the Jewish tradition that we have been observing for more than 3,000 years!
As far as children are concerned, Jewish law over a thousand years ago was concerned about kids staying awake for the seder. So, instead of moving the seder to an early hour in violation of the tradition, the thought was to feed the kids a little early and then give them games to play so that they can really share the experience. Show me a child who does not want to stay up late at night anyway.
As far as the four cups of wine are concerned, in Exodus, Chapter 6, G-d promises that He will take the Jews out of Egypt and redeem them and save them. In that narrative G-d uses four words to talk about the Exodus and His redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt. The rabbis then said that the four cups of wine represent those four terms of redemption that we find in our Bible.
There was some controversy about a fifth term which speaks about G-d then bringing the Jewish people into the land of Israel, their promised heritage. The final decision about whether to have five cups of wine or four was resolved as being four. But a fifth cup of wine, the cup of Elijah, would be utilized for that fifth term. Furthermore, since that fifth cup of wine represents being brought into the land of Israel and future redemption, Elijah is the perfect individual who heralds the coming of the Messiah and the final redemption as being the source of that fifth cup of wine.
