<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The use of &ldquo;chamar medina&rdquo; for the four cups of wine became relevant in the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania during the Second World War. When it came towards Pesach there was no wine available. In fact the only beverage available, and even that in limited quantities, was tea sweetened with saccharin. The question was whether it could be used for the four cups of wine. On this, Rav Efraim Oshry wrote a teshuvah (Mima&rsquo;amakim, volume 3, responsum 5) in which he permitted tea sweetened with saccharin to be used for the four cups, since it could be considered as &ldquo;chamar medina&rdquo;.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He added, however that, unlike wine where one says the berachah over all four cups, one should say the berachah over the tea sweetened with saccharin only on the first and third cups.</span></span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" lang="EN-GB">Baruch Duvdevani z&rsquo;l, the </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;" lang="EN">executive director of the Jewish Agency's Aliyah department,</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" lang="EN-GB"> related that in the 1950s he was in an Arab country pretending to be a non-Jew, in order to bring Jews from that country to Israel. Although he had planned to leave that country on erev Pesach, he was at the last moment delayed, and had to spend seder night in his hotel room. For the four cups of wine, all he could do was to fill a cup with water four times, at the appropriate times, and drink it. When he returned to Israel he asked a she&rsquo;elah what he should have done in the circumstances and the answer he received was to do what he had in fact done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" align="left"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">A nazir, amongst other things, is forbidden to drink wine. Although today it is rare for a person to be a nazir, it does occasionally occur. One such case was Rav David Cohen z&rsquo;tl (1887 &ndash; 1972) who was known as &ldquo;Harav Hanazir&rdquo;. What did he do on seder night for the 4 kossos? I have been reliably informed that he used apple juice.</span></span></span></p>