Pour Out Thy Wrath!

It comes towards the end of the Seder.

After Birkat Ha-Mazon and just before Hallel, we pour a cup for Eliyahu HaNavi, open the door, and recite:

“Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations that do not know You, and on the 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.”

This brief declaration is, for me, a source of fascination and many formative Seder memories. My practice (except when living on the 11^th floor of a Manhattan apartment building) is to actually go outside for this declaration. Each year, Naama recounts and imitates one of her childhood Seder guests in Memphis reciting the passage in a Southern drawl, “Pour out Thy wrath.” (I hear her imitating that voice as I write this!)

The call itself is powerful. We shout out for justice and vengeance against those who have persecuted us throughout history. Afterwards, we invite Eliyahu, who personifies the eternity of the Jewish people and is a harbinger of redemption, inside to our Seder for a sip of wine. Since he has previously made thousands of stops, I wait anxiously for him to spill some wine. (I swear he actually did at my Seder when I was 4 years old!)

Alas, it comes late into the Seder, after three cups of wine, lots of matzah, and a big meal. It’s easy to overlook the power of this short statement.

“Shefoch Chamatcha” first appeared in the Haggadah as part of the Machzor Vitry compiled around 1145 by Rabbi Simchah, one of Rashi’s students. This timeframe makes sense as an angry call to vengeance was certainly relevant after the devastating First Crusade. The Jewish experience made this declaration a permanent part of the Seder. Jews have suffered throughout our history. While we’re not known for vengeance – and we’re more likely to call out to God to impose it, sometimes, enough is enough. 

At the Seder, we recount the Egyptian oppression. We experience the bitterness and the tears. We then “experience” the Exodus and redemption. At the same time, this experience cannot but help but bring to mind subsequent oppression. We made it out of Egypt, but what about…the destruction of the Temples…the Inquisition and expulsion from Spain…the pogroms…the Shoah…October 7?

At the point in the Seder when we are about to sing Hallel, and thank and praise God for leaving Egypt, we stop for a moment of reflection. We snap out of our historical reverie to consider our current circumstances. We thank God for the Exodus, while considering Jewish history and the present. We can’t let our enemies off the hook on this night when we celebrate our initial freedom.

The Seder night is called “Leil Shimurim,” the night of protection. Jewish tradition teaches that we can feel more confident and secure on this night. Some have the practice of leaving the door unlocked, and some of the protective prayers of the bedtime Shema are omitted. I believe this confidence is why we open the door, go outside, and loudly declare “Shefoch Chamatcha.” We’re not afraid to call for justice and vengeance. It’s our “We’re not gonna take it anymore!” moment - even if our neighbors won’t understand the Hebrew verses we recite.

Some feel our call for vengeance is out of character. The verses are more appropriate for our Biblical enemies like Amalek or the idolators of the Talmud and less relevant to today’s nations. After all, not all non-Jews are enemies. In recent years, some have removed “Shefoch Chamatcha” from the Haggadah. Others replaced it with what was claimed to be a 16^th century version which begins, “Pour out Your love…” This version turned out to be a forgery and a modern innovation.

“Shefoch Chamatcha” remains relevant.

In March 2023, Dr. Ruth Wisse wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “Some Jews have removed this section altogether from their Seder recitations. But moral evasion doesn’t improve the world.” With all that is broken and evil, with all the Jewish people have experienced and are experiencing, with 59 hostages in Gaza, we must demand justice and vengeance. As Dr. Wisse put it:

“If Jews believed in a God of justice, how else but through some call for justice could we remain Jews? Politically, theologically, and above all humanly, the call to God would actually prove indispensable for a people that does not do unto others as coalitions of evil have done — and in some cases still openly plan to do — unto them.”

Rabbi Menachem Kasher, a prominent scholar and prolific author, published a Haggadah in 1956. Rabbi Kasher, who famously suggested adding a fifth cup of wine at the Seder in our times due to the establishment of the State of Israel, felt that “Shefoch Chamatcha” could not be recited without acknowledging the unprecedented events of his generation. He wrote:

“Before recitation of the paragraph ‘Pour out Thy wrath” and Hallel and the Great Hallel, let us turn to two great epochs of our time: 1. Chaos and destruction…and 2. Liberation and rebuilding…We, members of the most unfortunate generation in all the years of Israel's exile, with our own eyes have beheld the annihilation of one third of our people at the hands of the savage Nazis…When we recite ‘Pour out Thy wrath,’ we are reminded of ‘the nations that know Thee not.’ And when we recite ‘To Him Who alone doeth great marvels,’ we recall the miraculous events accorded us by the Eternal in our own days and our own Holy Land; for this is the beginning of the redemption of people and soil, and the gathering of the exiles…”

What has true in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel remains just as true today in reaction to the world around us. “Shefoch Chamatcha” is not merely an historical interjection within the Seder liturgy. It’s an opportunity to take a stand against evil and injustice against Jews today. We will not be silent against Jews haters, Israel deniers, and hostage takers. There is an easy solution to the the war in Gaza: Hamas surrenders. There is no excuse or justification for accusing Israel of genocide. People who do so are not well-meaning or ill-informed. They are our enemies, and we demand justice and cry out to God for vengeance.

“Shefoch Chamatcha” is our declaration that we’re moving forward and confidently confront all those who oppose us.

Events since October 7 have shaken us to our cores. “Shefoch Chamatcha” gives us each a chance to regain our voice, step outside, and demand redemption, freedom for the hostages, and a better world.