Perhaps the most fascinating halakha associated with the rabbinic commandment of daled kosot is mentioned in the first Mishna in Arvei Pesachim.

The Mishnah (99b) states

…Even the poorest amongst Israel …must not drink less than the four cups of wine [on Pesach night] even if he/she [must receive a stipend] from the communal charity fund.

The Rashbam (Ibid., s.v. v’afilu) emphasizes this point by stating that if the overseer of the fund cannot give the ani funds to purchase four cups of wine, then the poor have the responsibility to find funds through other sources, including borrowing, selling one’s clothing, and hiring oneself out in order to raise funds to purchase wine.

The Talmud in Pesachim 112a discusses the uniqueness of this commandment which even the poor, at any cost, are compelled to fulfill. The Talmud suggests “Meshum Pir-sumei Nisa.” Since these cups of wine proclaim the miracle of redemption celebrated on Pesach night, everyone is required to observe this commandment despite any financial difficulty.

However, one is left with the task of trying to understand this Talmudic statement. After all, there are several commandments on the night of Pesach that commemorate the redemptive process, yet none of the others have this requirement. Furthermore, regarding all positive commandments, halakaha stresses that there is a maximum amount one is permitted to spend in order to fulfill a positive mitzvah. This is discussed in the Mishneh Torah (Arakhin 8:13), which states that a person who spends all of his/her funds to fulfill a mitzvah is called a chasid shoteh. This idea is codified by the Rema in the Shulchan Arukh (Orach Chayyim 656) as well.

One who does not [have funds] … to perform a timely mitzvah should not spend much money to perform it, as it is stated: “When spending [to perform a mitzvah] do not spend more than a fifth [of one’s earnings] even if the result is the inability to perform a timely positive commandment.

What is so unique about the four cups of wine, a rabbinic commandment, that the rabbis deviated from the maximum financial bound specified in Jewish Law when they legislated this law?

In addition to the vague answer mentioned in the Talmud, this issue is confronted by many. R. Asher ben Jehiel suggests, in his commentary Baal haTurim (Shemot 6:6), that if one calculates the numerical value of the four statements of redemption it equals the numerical value of the following statement: Zeh ani b’yisrael lo yi’fchatu lo me’arbah kosot. Whether one accepts this answer or not, the comment highlights an awareness of the odd nature of the financial commitment required in regard to the daled kosot. The Chofetz Chaim, in his commentary Biur Halakha (Orach Chayyim 656, s.v. afilu), suggests that the four cups of wine are merely a model for any positive commandment that one wishes to fulfill. There is no maximum limit on what one can spend to fulfill a positive commandment. The notion of borrowing funds to perform a mitzvah applies to any positive commandment. However, this suggestion in the Biur Halakha does not explain the concern of the Talmud with the comment in the Mishnah regarding daled kosot. Additionally, it completely contradicts the statements of the Rambam and the Rama as well as Talmudic statements found in Arakhin (28a) and Ketubot (50a).

Perhaps there is another way of resolving this issue and clarifying the statement regarding daled kosot in the Talmud. Commenting on the first Mishnah in Arvei Pesachim, Tosafot (s.v. lo) and the Rashbam (s.v. v’lo) paraphrase the Talmud Yerushalmi and state that the daled kosot represent the four stages in the redemptive process. However, if one looks at the original text of the Yerushalmi (Pesachim: chap. 10:1) one will find that Tosafot and the Rashbam modified the text. The Talmud Yerushalmi does not refer to them as “four stages of redemption,” but rather, “four redemptions.” Yiziat Mitzrayim was not one redemptive process; it was four separate processes. The exodus lasted one full year, slowly redeeming Knesset Yisrael and ridding them of the slave mentality that they acquired in Egypt.

Redemption Number One - v’hozeite

The Netziv comments (Shemot 8:28) that the first stage of the redemption process occurred during the plague of Arov. Seven months into the plagues, when chaos pervaded Egypt, the Egyptians began to ease the workload of the Jews. This gave the slave nation the opportunity to reflect upon freedom and its value, and reflect on life itself. The first bold step toward freedom is to realize the need and the value of being free. This is the process of being transformed from a piece of property into a person who can determine his/her own destiny.

Redemption Number Two – v’hezalte

Following the months of self-reflection, Hashem asked the Jewish people to make sacrifices for their freedom. They were to be bold and to realize that they, as individuals, have rights. Before the plague of darkness, Hashem commanded Moshe: “Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man ask of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold”(Shemot 11:2). Hashem asked the Jewish people to be assertive and inquire of their Egyptian taskmasters the location of their stolen merchandise. Notice the use of the Hebrew word nah in this request. Hashem asked Moshe to speak gently to the Jewish people, realizing that this is a difficult yet important transition. This is the first time that Knesset Yisrael, as a collective entity, was asked to be assertive against its masters.

Redemption Number Three – v’go-alte

The third component in the redemption of the Jewish people is the last to occur in the land of Egypt. Hashem requested that the Jewish people perform two positive commandments: the offering of the Korban Pesach and its prerequisite brit milah. The midrash (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, chap. 28) comments that it is only due to the merit of the blood of brit milah and Korban Pesach that the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt. These two commandments represent the Jewish people’s willingness to assert their own self-destiny. In a very personal way, circumcision concretized an internal commitment that the Jewish people had to their own culture and unique destiny. After making this commitment, they had to express their mindset in a public forum. Through the procedures of the Korban Pesach, the Jewish people asserted their culture and values, even when they came in total contradiction with those of their Egyptians taskmasters. They captured the god of the Egyptians, held it in captivity for three days, and then slaughtered it. Both actions are statements of rebellion. They reflect initiative by the Jewish people toward their own destiny; sacrificing uniformity and their physical safety with regard to their taskmasters.

Redemption Number Four – v’lakachte

The final component of the Redemption occurs outside of Egypt with Matan Torah.

Why was it necessary to give the Jewish people the Torah immediately after taking them out of Egypt? Does not the Torah represent an effort on the part of Hashem to make the Jews slaves to yet another task master? Indeed, we the Jewish people are called slaves of God, “For to me the children of Yisrael are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt” (Va-yikra 25:55).

Indeed Yirmiyahu (2:2) writes: “…I [Hashem] remember in your favor, the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, when you followed after me into the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.” The Radak on this verse suggests that the act of devotion on the part of the Jewish people was their willingness to accept the Torah and sacrifice themselves to Hashem.

Rav Soloveitchik explained that Matan Torah is a paradoxical experience, for one can only feel free when surrendering one’s freedom to Hashem. Often, we are prisoners to physiological and psychological constraints and social pressures. We are often coerced into certain roles by our employer or our community. In reality, we are never free because if we feel the pressures and coercions of our society, then our options are restricted, even when there are no physical shackles upon us. By surrendering ourselves to Hashem and the norms and mores of the Torah, we attain a degree of freedom. This empowers us to recognize that our lives need not be ones of fate but ones of destiny. Taking the Jewish people out of Egypt without this stage of redemption would have constituted a continuation of bondage. This is the message found in Pirkei Avot (6:2):

… He (R. Yehoshua b. Levi) said further, ‘The luchot were the work of Hashem, and the writing was the writing of Hashem , charut, engraved upon the luchot.’ Read not charut (engraved) but cheirut (freedom), for there is no true free person but one who occupies him/herself with the study of Torah.

It would seem that the commandment of the four cups of wine is unique in the following manner. While there are many positive commandments, both biblical and rabbinic in nature, none fully celebrate sacrifice on the part of the Jewish people. The Meshum Pir-sumei Nisah of the daled kosot is a declaration of the sacrifice on the part of the Jewish people in the redemptive process. At each stage, the Jewish people were compelled to give of themselves to reach that redemptive level. They had to: (1) reflect upon their lives and come to the conclusion that freedom bore new and difficult responsibilities (2) confront their task masters (3) assert their culture with rituals that were deemed repulsive in Egyptian society and (4) achieve complete freedom through agreeing to be servants again, this time to Hashem. Since this commandment symbolizes the sacrifice of the Jewish people, it is incumbent upon every Jew to sacrifice in order to fulfill this mitzvah. Even a poor person, who need not beg to fulfill his/her obligation in regard to the Korban Pesach, consumption of matza, purchasing of a lulav, mezuza, or tefillin, must ask for communal funds to fulfill his/her obligation regarding the drinking of the fours cups of wine at the seder.

There is one other situation in which halakha dictates that there is no financial limit in one’s responsibility to fulfill a positive commandment. This situation is the commandment of kindling the Chanukah lights. The same reason found in regard to daled kosot, applies to this commandment. The Chanukah lights represent the redemption which occurred through the sacrifice of the Hasmoneans and their followers, as is stated in the particular tefillot for Chanukah. Perhaps this is an aspect of the Pir-sumei Nisah mentioned regarding Chanukah in the Talmud (Shabbat 23b).

…These lights we kindle to proclaim the marvelous victories … and the battles which You performed for our forefathers in those days accomplished through your holy priests … (haneirot halalu)

…You [Hashem] enabled the strong to be delivered into the hands of the weak (Hasmoneans), many into the hand of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and tyrants into the hand of devotees to Torah…And afterwards your children [continued their efforts] came to the sanctuary of Your house, cleared Your holy place, purified Your Temple …. (al ha’nisim)

As we prepare for Pesach, let us all pray that next year we will drink the fifth cup of redemption, v’heiveite. We live in times in which we see the geulah, with all of its challenges, unfolding before us. However, like the first four cups of redemption, it is up to us to seize the moment.