passover
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“Do you think
Elijah the prophet
enters through
the door?
He enters through
the heart.”
24 MARCH 16, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
comes, the doubt will be clarifi ed.

Therefore, based on this doubt, the
cup is poured but not drunk, and it
is called the Cup of Elijah, for when
he comes, all doubts will be clarifi ed,
including this doubt.

Eventually, Elijah will indicate
whether drinking a fi fth cup is
required. For now, that cup is poured
for him alone!
On Passover, Elijah is expected to
appear on the threshold. Anticipated
at the doorway, he mediates between
home and community, between private
space and the wider world. He links the
ancient liberation from Egyptian slavery
with messianic deliverance, bridging
the chasm between this unredeemed
earth and the fi nal redemption.

But memories of Elijah
and the seder can be
bittersweet, because of
the annual disappoint-
ment of not fi nding him
at the door. Once, before
Passover, according to a Chasidic tale,
the disciples of Menahem Mendel
(the Kotsker Rebbe) complained to
him about this. He promised them
that Elijah would be revealed to them
at the upcoming seder.

On the fi rst night of the festival,
the room was full, the atmosphere
charged, with Elijah’s cup waiting
on the table. The seder proceeded
and, fi nally, the door was opened.

What happened next left the disci-
ples astonished. Nothing; no one
appeared. Crushed, they turned to their
Rebbe, whose face was beaming.

Seeing their distress, he asked,
“What’s troubling you?” They told him.

“Fools!” he thundered. “Do you think
Elijah the prophet enters through the
door? He enters through the heart.”
This piece is drawn from Daniel
Matt’s new book, “Becoming Elijah:
Prophet of Transformation,” published
by Yale University Press. 1