What We Do

Pour another cup of wine (#4). Yes, you can handle it.

Now pour another cup and set it in the middle of the table. You won’t drink this wine—it’s for Elijah the Prophet.

Send some kids to open the door. Recite the lines, “Pour out your wrath…” from the Haggadah. Watch Elijah the Prophet enter. Can’t see him? That’s precisely why you need another cup of wine.

Elijah the prophet comes to announce the imminent arrival of the final Exodus.

Tonight is a night of protection—"Leyl Shimurim" we call it. Tonight, we are not afraid of anything, for we are carried securely in His holy, gentle hand. We open the door in the middle of the night and we show that confidence, that deep trust that no harm will befall us.

On that very first night of Passover in Egypt, we were redeemed on the merit of our trust that He would redeem us. Tonight, we will be liberated from this Egypt of the soul. Again, we must show our trust.

Now we finish the Hallel, the "Psalms of Praise" (the first half was said at the end of step #5). It’s all there, in your Haggadah. Sing whatever you have a song to.

At the end, say a blessing and drink the wine. You guessed it: reclining. But try not to fall over.

What It Means

The ancient rabbis clued us in on a key principle in cosmic functions: Whatever He tells us to do, He does Himself. Of course, there’s a difference: We do it in our little human world. He does it on a cosmic plane.

He told us to open our door on the night of Passover. So, tonight, He opens every door and every gateway of the spiritual cosmos to every member of the Jewish People. To each one of us, regardless of what we have been doing all the rest of the year. Tonight is the chance to reach to the highest of spiritual levels. Prophecy, divine spirit, wisdom and insight—take your choice and jump a quantum leap. There’s nothing stopping us.