Rabbi’s Update 4/17/2026

Dear Friends:

In one of my talks over Pesach I discussed the “real” reason for a fifth cup of wine -- one which we fill but do not drink -- at the Passover Seder and why it is called the Cup of Elijah.

We have four cups because there are four phrases or promises of redemption in Exodus 6:6-7. God says “I will free you”, “deliver you”, “redeem you”, and “take you.” Then in verse 6:8 God says “I will bring you into the Land” of Canaan. The question which is debated in the Talmud is whether this last promise of “I will bring you” is part of the same redemptive action, or a separate promise.

If it is part of the same action then we should actually have five cups since it is a five-fold promise, not a four-fold one. But if it is a separate promise then it doesn’t get a cup along with the previous four promises. (Not to mention that having a fifth cup would mess up the symmetry of the Seder wherein we also have the Four Questions and the Four Sons.) 

This debate is one of many in the Talmud that end with the phrase תיקו teiku which is Aramaic for “let it stand.” So as a compromise we fill a fifth cup but we don’t drink it. But the phrase תיקו came to be understood as an acronym for a phrase which means “Elijah will resolve all difficulties and problems” upon his return to herald the coming of the Messiah. So according to this folk belief, when Elijah comes we will know the answer because if he drinks it, we know there should be five cups, and if he doesn’t, we’ll know that there should only be four.

It seems to me that the idea of filling but not drinking a cup to recall the promise of the Land makes a lot of sense in our day, and it’s worth pondering with Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel Independence Day, coming up this Wednesday. In the Prayer for Israel which we say on Shabbat morning, we ask God to bless the State of Israel “with its promise of redemption.” Israel is important and the growth of antisemitism throughout the world reminds us once again why a piece of sovereign Jewish territory is an existential necessity. But the State of Israel as it stands now, with all of the challenges it faces,  is certainly not complete redemption. By filling a cup but not drinking it, we simultaneously express gratitude for what we have while acknowledging that there is a long way to go until the promise is completely fulfilled.

Last Friday I optimistically said that I believe we had resolved the issues in Zooming services from our Sanctuary. It turns out that we had not. Tom Loggie and I spent quite a bit of time working on this issue yesterday and I’m hopeful that services tomorrow morning will be successfully streamed over Zoom. The problem seems to be with the reliability and bandwidth of the wifi in the Sanctuary and not with any of the equipment we are using; so until that’s resolved, we’ll be using a hotspot rather than the synagogue’s wifi network for Zoom. This doesn’t affect how you connect to or view our Shabbat morning Zoom, but I did want to share this info with you.

If you or someone you know is in need because of having been laid off, or has  lost benefits of some type and needs immediate help, please let me know. I can access limited funds through the Jewish Federation almost immediately. For longer-term help, the Hebrew Free Loan Society will loan up to $18,000 interest-free and the Jewish Federation has set up a hotline to  access assistance at 703-JCARING.

As a reminder, I am having drop-in hours on Thursday afternoons from 2 to 4 at the shul. For my drop-in hours, you do not need to make an appointment -- that would negate the whole point of drop-in hours -- but I’d urge you to check and make sure I am there regardless as sometimes there are unavoidable pastoral or other emergencies which might take me away from the building. 

As always, if I can do anything for you or you need to talk, please contact me at rabbi@kehilatshalom.org rather than through the synagogue office. I am happy to meet you at the synagogue by appointment; if you want to speak with me it’s best to make an appointment rather than assuming I will be there when you stop by. 

Additionally, if you know of a Kehilat Shalom congregant or another member of our Jewish community who could use a phone call, please let me know.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Charles L. Arian