Siman 472, Se'if 10 · What "it harms him" means, and how far one must push

Shulchan Aruch, Siman 472, se'if 10

"One who does not drink wine because it harms him, or because he dislikes it, must push himself and drink in order to fulfill the mitzvah of the four cups."
(Shulchan Aruch)

What "it harms him" means, and how far one must push

"Because it harms him, meaning that drinking it causes him distress and gives him a headache."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 34)

• The definition of harm: We are talking about someone for whom drinking is unpleasant and brings on a headache. This does not include someone who would be laid up in bed from drinking; in such a case we do not obligate him to push himself.
• The proof from the Yerushalmi: The poskim cite the Yerushalmi's account of Rabbi Yochanan, who forced himself to drink the four cups and suffered a headache for a long time afterward. That is not a directive to behave the way he did; it is brought to show us how much effort this mitzvah is worth.
• Our situation today: The difficulty is not what it once was, because one can fulfill the obligation with grape juice, which does not present the problem that wine does.

One whose doctors forbid him to drink

• Distinguishing the cases: The Shulchan Aruch is discussing someone whom wine distresses, or who simply does not like it, for example he gets a headache for a day, or he would rather have a different beverage. A separate question entirely is a person for whom wine is medically unhealthy and whose doctors forbid him to drink it.
• The ruling of the poskim: In such a case he should take chamar medinah (a beverage of local importance), such as natural orange juice or another drink that carries some standing.
• How to view it: This is not a fulfillment of the obligation of wine, and he does not recite borei pri hagafen but shehakol nihyah bidvaro; still, it serves as a remembrance of the mitzvah.
• Middle-ground options: If it is the sugar in grape juice that is harmful to him, there is grape juice without added sugar, and there is also dry wine. Every person knows what suits him, and he should drink accordingly.
• A story on this subject: It is told of one of the rabbanim (some attribute it to the Brisker Rav) that a man came and asked whether one could fulfill the four cups with milk. The Rav instructed that he be given money to buy meat, wine and the needs of the Seder, and explained that a person who is asking about milk clearly has money for neither meat nor wine. In those days, abroad, there were no substitutes like grape juice, so the question itself revealed his situation.

The obligation to drink is a personal obligation

"This is unlike Shabbos and Yom Tov, where one can hear Kiddush from someone else and thereby fulfill his obligation; here, however, the obligation to drink rests on every individual."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 36)

• Who is obligated: Women and men alike are obligated in the four cups, as is every child from bar mitzvah age.
• Shomea k'oneh does not apply: On Shabbos and Yom Tov one can fulfill his obligation through someone else's Kiddush, but with the four cups that does not help, since this is a personal mitzvah and each person must drink himself. A few poskim held that one could rely on it here as well, but most poskim do not accept that, and the Mishnah Berurah rules as above.
• How much to drink: One need not drink the entire cup, but rather the majority of a revi'is.

Diluting the wine with water

• The basic allowance: It is permitted to dilute the wine with water, just as is done for Kiddush.
• How much dilution in a pressing situation: Some poskim permitted, in a pressing situation, dilution of up to nearly fifty percent water. That is a major leniency, and it was stated only for a pressing situation.
• Grape juice: This leniency was said regarding wine, not regarding grape juice.
• A note on what is on the market: Most grape juices are one hundred percent grape, though one should check whether other things have been added.

Red wine or white wine

"It is a mitzvah to seek out red wine, provided the white is not of superior quality."
(Shulchan Aruch, se'if 11)

"Red wine, as the verse says, 'Do not look at wine when it reddens', which shows that redness indicates quality and importance."
(Mishnah Berurah)

"A remembrance of the blood of the Jewish children whom Pharaoh slaughtered."
(Mishnah Berurah)

• Two reasons: The first is importance: the red color indicates a finer wine, as is derived from the verse in Mishlei. The second is that it recalls blood.
• The symbolism of the foods: The foods of the Seder night carry a symbolic dimension, like maror, which recalls how the Egyptians embittered the lives of our forefathers. For that reason the color of the wine, too, is meaningful.

"In places where the gentiles are apt to fabricate false accusations, people refrain from taking red wine."
(Mishnah Berurah)

• The blood libel: In places where such libels occurred, people avoided red wine so that it should not be claimed that blood was mixed into it. We know of this libel in connection with matzos, and from here we see that it touched the wine as well. Under normal circumstances, however, one should seek out red wine.

The practical difference for Kiddush all year round

• It depends on the reason: If the reason is that it recalls blood, then the color matters only on Pesach. But the Gemara ties the matter to the importance signified by the color, and according to that, for Kiddush too one should preferably take red wine, since that is the finer wine.
• A dispute among the Rishonim: Some Rishonim discussed whether one fulfills Kiddush with white wine or whether one must seek out red. Halachically, if the white wine is of better quality one takes the white, as the Shulchan Aruch writes, "provided the white is not of superior quality," and the Mishnah Berurah does not comment otherwise.
• A play on words: A posek who lived in Spain in the time of the Ran wrote that in their region the white wine was better, so they took white, and he remarked wittily: "Im Lavan garti" ("I dwelled with Lavan," playing on lavan, white).
• Regarding the four cups: Here it is more complicated, because red has a special advantage in that it recalls blood. Even so, it is stated that if the white is of better quality, one takes it.
• What "superior" means: A more expensive wine, a wine of stature. Taking it displays importance and the manner of freedom on the Seder night.

A glass goblet versus a silver goblet

• The working assumption: From the halachah we have learned that one should drink from fine, beautiful vessels, so seemingly a goblet of silver or gold is preferable to one of glass.
• The practice that is cited: It is reported of several Acharonim that on the Seder night they used a glass goblet.

Three explanations have been offered:

1. To see the color: If the color of the wine matters, it is worthwhile to have a transparent goblet in which the color is visible.
2. Preserving the wine: The wine is not drunk immediately but stands in the goblet, and wine standing in a metal vessel is not properly preserved, whereas in glass it fares better.
3. The needs of the poor: The Rav saw that the gabba'im were unable to cover the considerable Seder night expenses of the poor, so he pawned his silver and gold vessels in order to have money to support them, and he was left with a glass goblet.

• The lesson in this: One cannot infer the reason behind a Rav's practice, since there may be all sorts of reasons for it, and it is impossible to know the true one unless he is asked explicitly. And even then the true answer is not always given: it is said of the Chazon Ish that he did not always reveal the reasons for his practices, because he did not want them to become known.

Cooked wine and kunditon

"One fulfills the obligation with cooked wine and with kunditon."
(Shulchan Aruch, se'if 12)

"Ideally it is better to take wine that is not cooked, unless the cooked wine is of better quality; and the same applies with regard to kunditon."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 39)

"Kunditon, meaning wine mixed with honey and pepper."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 40)

• The recurring principle: The decision is made according to the level of importance. Uncooked wine is preferable at the outset because it is finer, but if the cooked wine is better, one takes it.
• The cooking of wine in Eretz Yisrael: In Eretz Yisrael the practice from the start was to cook the wines, since cooking resolves the problem of yayin nesech and stam yeinam (wine handled by a non-Jew). In recent generations the wine industry has developed and there are boutique wines that are not cooked, so one must be careful and know from whom he is buying.
• Heating and pasteurization: Although some call the process heating rather than cooking, for this purpose heating is part of cooking.
• What kunditon is: According to those who know, kunditon is a questionable wine. The name exists today as well for a beverage of that type, and some write it the same way. If it is defined as wine, one fulfills the obligation with it.

A poor man supported by charity

"Even a poor man who is supported by charity must sell his garment, or borrow, or hire himself out, in order to have wine for the four cups."
(Shulchan Aruch, se'if 13)

"And one who has only four cups' worth after dilution should take them all for the first night."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 41)

• Priority of the first night: The first night of Yom Tov is weightier than the second, since the first is d'oraisa and the second is d'rabbanan, and therefore he takes all the cups for the first night.
• The lamp of his home comes first: The Mishnah Berurah brings that the lamp of one's home takes precedence over the four cups, because of shalom bayis, as explained in the Gemara in Maseches Shabbos. There are, then, things that come ahead of it in importance.
• One who has only two or three: The Mishnah Berurah also lays out the order of the halachah for someone who has only two cups, or three.

"He must sell his garment, that is, if the gabba'im did not give it to him... but in truth they are obligated to provide a poor man with four cups, and I am astonished at certain places that do not attend to this, for the matter is straightforward and is brought in a number of poskim."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 42)

• The obligation of the gabba'im: Kimcha d'Pischa is not flour alone; it is a name for a concept. In practice one must provide the poor man with all the expenses of the Seder night, and there is an explicit Mishnah in Pesachim that we do not give him less than four cups of wine. That is why the Mishnah Berurah expresses astonishment at places that do not attend to it.
• When they did not provide for him: Even though the gabba'im are obligated, if they did not give, he cannot exempt himself, and he sells his garment.
• The underlying principle: The Mishnah Berurah explains the halachos without entering into the source of the obligation, but we learned this principle in Hilchos Chanukah: the Gemara says regarding the four cups that "they too were part of that miracle," and this is pirsumei nisa, publicizing the miracle, just like the Chanukah lamp. The weight Chazal gave to publicizing the miracle is the basis for the obligation to sell one's garment for the four cups, and likewise for the Chanukah lamp.
• For one who cannot manage wine: The Mishnah Berurah writes four cups of wine or chamar medinah, as was explained regarding someone who has no money or whose doctors forbid him to drink wine.

Defining chamar medinah

• The difficulty of the definition: Defining chamar medinah is very difficult and far from clear, and the poskim wrestle with it.
• One definition: One posek wrote that a beverage a person brings as a gift when invited to a Shabbos meal qualifies as chamar medinah. The very fact that it is a fitting gift shows its importance.
• Another definition: Others say that importance is not the criterion, but rather prevalence and commonness, that is, a drink people enjoy and which is widespread in that country.
• The meaning of the term: "Chamar" means wine, so chamar medinah is a beverage that holds the standing of wine in that country.
• The background in the time of the Gemara: In the time of the Gemara there were not many beverages as there are today: wine, sheichar or beer, and water, which does not count. Milk spoils immediately and people were not accustomed to keeping it for a meal, and besides that there is a problem with it at a meat meal. So at meals people drank wine or sheichar, and because of this the poskim find it hard to define what falls under chamar medinah.
• Havdalah on beer: The very same question arises regarding Havdalah, and there Havdalah is made on beer and sheichar.
• Our situation today: Today people commonly drink soft drinks such as cola at meals, which makes the question harder. There has also been discussion whether borscht counts as chamar medinah.
• Stories on the subject: It is told of someone who came in to Rav Shmuel Salant and asked whether one could fulfill the four cups with milk; these are well known stories.

In passing · Drinking borscht ("chamitzah") on Pesach

• The custom: In past generations people would prepare borscht before Pesach and drink it during the days of Pesach, and it was something special in the home.
• The claim about the origin of the custom: Some maintain that this was an enactment of rabbanim in later generations, directed against the Karaites. The Karaites expounded the verse "You shall eat nothing leavened" as referring to anything sour, such as pickled cucumbers and the like, and forbade eating it. Therefore it was established to drink specifically on Pesach the beverage called "chamitzah," to demonstrate that this is not the meaning of the verse, and that chametz is only flour and water. Some rabbanim said this, and it is even attributed to the Belzer Rebbe and to other rabbanim.
• An additional reason mentioned: Borscht is very inexpensive, and it served as a substitute for one who lacked the means for the needs of the Seder.