Pour Out Your Wrath... or not

The "Pour Out Your Wrath" prayer is not an original composition but rather a combination of biblical verses. Writes Joseph Tabory: "The earliest mention of this custom is probably the version of the haggadah found in Machzor Vitry (p. 296). In this version, we find an additional six verses before the final verse from Lamentations: five from Psalms and one from Hosea. This version seems to be a later addition to the Machzor Vitry as there is no mention of this custom in the description of the seder attributed to Rashi in this same work (p. 2.87.). It is difficult to determine when this addition was in- corporated into the MachzorVitry. The earliest appearance of these verses that can be dated with some certainty is in the workof Eliezer ben Judah of Worms. He mentions them as an aside, considering them an accepted custom. There is, as yet, no evidence for the recital of these verses outside of Germany or France earlier than this, although they have been interpolated into one of the manuscripts of the siddur of R. Amram Gaon." JPS Commentary on the Haggadah, Joseph Tabory, 2008 pp 53-4

Our discomfort with "Pour out Your Wrath" is not simply our modernist discomfort with the curse incantations, but is also one of context. How does such a curse belong at a Seder.... a celebration of freedom? To understand the context of this vitriolic combination of verses, we must understand the context of the Seder night itself.

The Seder is first and foremost about Deliverance - Geula. Deliverance from Egypt and the Final Deliverance of the Messianic Era. It is a Layl Shemurim... a night of Watching.

The "Pour Out Your Wrath" incantation comes after the 3rd cup of Geulah (Extraordinary chastisements - וּבִשְׁפָטִים גְּדֹלִים), the cup of the violent act of deliverance. Prior to its recitation, the Cup of Elijah - the forebearer of the Messiah is filled. According to most customs, the Fourth Cup of unification with God (I will take you) is filled after the door is shut.

Certainly one could make a case, that the antidote for "Pour out Your Wrath" with it's emphasis on the disruptive (חבלי דמשיח) nature of redemption, would be to focus on the harmony to follow....

This alternative to Pour out Your Wrath has an interesting and questionable pedigree. “Chayyim Bloch (1881-1973) reported that he found an unusual version of this prayer in a manuscript haggadah that had been compiled in 1521. He states that this manuscript, which included other poems that are not found in standard haggadot and differing versions of the text, had disappeared during the Holocaust without a trace. Fortunately, he claims, he retained some notes with this prayer… …. Chayyim Bloch has a reputation for presenting new texts as ancient documents.” The JPS Commentary on the Haggadah, Joseph Tabory, 2008 Jewish Publication Society p. 55. While Blochs pseudo-blessing may satisfy our modernist sensibilities, it's contextual justification is forced. Why would we bless our non-Jewish friends at this juncture... if not simply to offset the existing curse.

So what would an authentic alternative to "Pour out Your Wrath" sound like? Yes, Chayyim Bloch's "Pour Out Your Love" combined with the traditional "Pour out Your Wrath" covers all the bases but begs the question of why curse and why bless and why here?

Rabbi Alexandri's prayer offers an alternative. What delays liberation and redemption is subjugation to sin on a personal level and political subjugation on a national level. As long as we are subjugated on a national level, we may be forgiven for focusing on the external forces that rob us of our self-determination and self-esteem. But once we have returned to our homeland and have gained equal rights throughout the world, then that which separates us from redemption and liberation is the hamtez that lies within.

What might such an incantation sound like?

Below is a poem (piyut) written by Rabbi Shimon ben Yitzhak Born in Mainz, Germany; an important scholar of his time. As a paytan he composed yozerot, kerovot, selihot, hymns, and rashuyyot le-hatanim. It is probable that he sang his piyutim himself. His piyutim bare traces of the language found in early piyutim, and they are marked by the pain of the persecutions of the Jews in Bar-Isaacs' lifetime. Birth: after circa 970 Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Death: 1020

Isræl Jacob Yuval notes that it has been pointed out by scholars that this "poem cursing the “evil impulse” was stylistically similar to the curse against the Gentiles. This liturgical poem continues alphabetically; the verbs used to curse later on are “sweep him away, hurl him, compel him, banish him, sacrifice him” (see A. M. Haberman quoted in Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by Isræl Jacob Yuval. pp 123-4). This piyut is part of the Erev Rosh HaShanna Selichot, but that does not mean that the author had Selichot in mind.... after all speaking about the Haggadah, scholars note that: "When such a volume was compiled, it became customary to add poetical pieces. ...These piyyuṭim were not written for this service, but were selected from other collections." Jewish Encyclopedia entry for Haggadah