Tzav/Hagadol: the cult of Elijah

The prophet Eliahu ( Ellijah) is tied to the Passover seder by tradition.  A cup, the fifth of the four cups of wine, is set aside for Eliahu.  Between the grace after the meal ( benching), which is done over  the third  cup of wine, and the Hallel, the psalms of praise that are capped by the fourth cup, there is a pithy  prayer is uttered. The Koren Hagadah, which is in Sefaria says: 

A cup of wine is now poured in honor of Elijah, and the door opened. 

שְׁפֹךְ חֲמָתְךָ אֶל־הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יְדָעוּךָ וְעַל־מַמְלָכוֹת אֲשֶׁר בְּשִׁמְךָ לֹא קָרָאוּ. כִּי אָכַל אֶת־יַעֲקֹב וְאֶת־נָוֵהוּ הֵשַׁמּוּ. שְׁפָךְ־עֲלֵיהֶם זַעֲמֶךָ וַחֲרוֹן אַפְּךָ יַשִּׂיגֵם. תִּרְדֹף בְּאַף וְתַשְׁמִידֵם מִתַּחַת שְׁמֵי יְיָ. 

שְׁפֹךְ POUR OUT Your rage

upon the nations that do not know You,

and on regimes that have not called upon Your name.

For Jacob is devoured;

they have laid his places waste.

Pour out Your great anger upon them,

and let Your blazing fury overtake them.

Pursue them in Your fury and destroy them

from under the heavens of the LORD

When I was a boy, at our family seders the only person who said these words was my father, who davened the Hagadah.  He would read it rapidly in Hebrew without explanation. We had no awareness of the content.  We just sang the name, Elihu Hanavi again and again. We thought we were opening the door to let Elihu in. We would closely watch that special glass of wine and see a tiny sip removed. 

My holocaust survivor parents certainly understood the meaning. They were  justified to feel the sentiments expressed.   Later, when I leaned more of the song, I understood that it was a call for the prompt arrival  of the Messiah; that all our trials end soon. 

This year, Passover follows immediately after Shabbath.   The Shabbath that precedes Passover is designated Shabbath Hagadol, the Great Shabbath, and it has a special haftara. 

Shabbath Hagadol is different from the other four special Shabbatoth.  There is no special Torah reading, maftir is just repeating the last  four  verse of the  Tzav, the weekly parsha. Tzav, the word means command!, outlines the sacrificial ritual that initiated Aaron and his sons as the priests of the Temple service.  The idea of following commands, even if they are not understood ( as long as they do not harm others?) is paramount in this parsha.  The last 3 verses all repeat the word tzav, command. Doing things that are not understood clearly is positive in this context.

  The Haftara contains several oft-quoted passages.  Prominent among these is

הִנֵּ֤ה אָנֹכִי֙ שֹׁלֵ֣חַ לָכֶ֔ם אֵ֖ת אֵלִיָּ֣ה הַנָּבִ֑יא לִפְנֵ֗י בּ֚וֹא י֣וֹם יְ

הַגָּד֖וֹל וְהַנּוֹרָֽא׃ 

Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of GD.  

When our eldest daughter, Elisheva, was learning to play piano, she had a book of songs by Dvakus.  These were popular religious Hebrew songs: a genre she loved at the time. A song with this title was one of the first she learned. We mispronounced the title, written in Roman ( not Hebrew) characters, and we did not understand that the song was a recitation of this verse. 

We recently completed tractate Sanhedrin in the page of the day ( daf yomi) cycle. The last chapter deals with The World to Come, the world after this one. The world in which the dead are resurrected.  On the last page, Elihu appears. Elements of the story that appears at the end of Malachim A (Kings I) are analyzed.  The story is the culmination of the interaction between King Ahab and Eliahu.  Ahab boasts that Gd is not punishing his violations. Eliahu stands up for Gd's honor and declares a drought.  The drought happens.  The Talmud characterizes the action as Gd transferring the keys that control rainfall to  Eliahu. Eliahu is then confronted with the need to resurrect the son of  a woman who fed him  at a time of danger. The Talmud says that he forced to surrender the keys to rain for the key to resurrection. Too much power cannot be transferred to one prophet. 

When my wife, Karen Treiger was  a girl, I imagine her 9 or 10 years old, she learned of the tradition that a day would come when the dead returned to life. She told her  grandfather, Papa Jack,  a man who enjoyed the pleasures of this world and did noy always follow the rules, about  this. From then on, he would ask, "When is that guy coming? I will have to hide because when my father  finds out what I did with the business, he will be very unhappy." This is a rational understanding of the judgement that surrounds the resurrection. We will all need to look at what we have done and how it has impacted others.  

Eliahu appears throughout the Talmud.  Presumably he utilizes his key of resurrection. He saves and enlightens scholars. He will be the judge at the resurrection and he will bring that delightful miracle. 

As I go through the seder and all the Passover laws and traditions, I do not understand what I am doing.  I can see the benefits in unifying the family and unifying the people, but I know that I do not understand why am I doing this. I am doing a Tzav, a command that I do not comprehend. 

I have nostalgia for the time when I did not understand the words. Now that I do, I still see the wine decrease after we open that door and let Eliahu in.