The Seder is All About the FOUR?... FIVE cups - Understanding Why Elijah Gets a Cup

There are authorities who maintain we are obligated that we are drink not four, but five cups of wine at the Seder. This based on the fact that there are actually five “expressions of redemption” that are found in Scripture. As a sort of compromise between these two opinions, only four cups are drunk, but the fifth cup is filled. This fifth cup corresponds to the fifth expression of redemption (“And I shall bring you into the land”) and how fitting it is for this to be known as the cup of Elijah.

From Rabbi Daniel Matt:

But the Jews certainly don’t forget about him.

It takes a few hundred years to develop. In the Book of Kings, Elijah is taken up to heaven in a whirlwind, in a fiery chariot. But it's not clear if that means he dies a spectacular death in the chariot or lives and goes to heaven.

But in the book of Malachi [the final prophetic book in the Bible], it later says Elijah’s going to announce the End of Days. So, the rabbis assume that he's taken alive to heaven. But, for the rabbis, he's too extreme. So, he gradually becomes depicted in rabbinical texts as a compassionate hero.

He's still zealous, but now he's zealous to right wrongs. He’s zealous to help the poor. He can't stay away from Earth when somebody is in trouble.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Missing Fifth

Beneath the surface of the Haggadah we find, not four fours, but five fives. In each case there is a missing fifth- a cup, an expression of deliverance, a verse, a question and a child. Each points to something incomplete in our present situation… Something is missing from our celebration- the first cup… That is a measure of what is still to be achieved. We have not yet reached our destination. The missing fifths remind us of work still to done.

We open the door twice on Seder night. Once at “Ha Lachma Anya” we opened the door to our past, slavery and poverty and we invited the needy to join us. Now we open the door to the future, our tomorrow. So, we invite Elijah, the prophet of hope and happy endings.

For more information, see also https://www.brandeis.edu/jewish-experience/holidays-religious-traditions/2022/march/elijah-passover-matt.html

And for Elijah in art through the ages: https://talivisualmidrash.org.il/en/search/?_topics=1937

Later folk literature would often introduce Elijah as the savior in all-too-frequent situations when communities of Jews were in dire straits. Out of nowhere and often disguised, Elijah would appear and foil the wicked plot. Again, why Elijah? Because he was the hero who could call down miracles; he was the intimate of God who never died; and he was the intercessor who would zealously plead the cause of his people. And so, Jews continue to venerate him-at every meal, at the end of every Sabbath, at circumcisions, and, most famously, at our Passover seders.

- https://reformjudaism.org/passover-mystery-fifth-cup

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

Why must we open the door for Elijah the Prophet? Because, unless we open the door, Elijah will not come. There is a fundamental difference between the initial redemption and ultimate redemption. The initial redemption was brought by G-d alone- the 10 plagues, parting the Red Sea, fighting Pharaoh’s armies. We were still slaves and could not act on our own. But when G-d gave us the Torah, we took responsibility for ultimate redemption upon ourselves. It is we who now must act to bring Elijah. As the Kotzker Rebbe said, “Where is the place of G-d’s glory? Wherever one allows G-d in.” If we only open the door, redemption will come in our time.