At restaurant DIY drink counters people almost always fill their cups all the way to the top and then struggle to get the tops on. At a buffet plates get perilously heaped. When I make my morning coffee I fill it to the top and then walk really carefully back to my desk. Every morning.
Why do we fill a cup or plate so full it’s hard to cover or carry without spilling? To get our money’s worth? To get all we possibly can? Is there a way to take a bit less so we can enjoy that “less” more?
On Seder night we fill five cups right to the top. For Havdalah we fill the cup so it overflows.
The Hebrew for overflow is liglosh. It means “to boil over; to ski; to skate; to glide; to slide from topic to topic; to surf (also to surf the Internet).”
We find it in Shir Hashirim 4:1 “…your hair is like a flock of goats that streamed down (galshu) from Mount Gilead.”
Rashi: And in the allegorical sense [it is said of] the congregation of Israel that within your camps and your tents even the empty ones among you are as dear to me as Yaakov and his sons who streamed down to descend from Mount Gilead when Lavan overtook them there.
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch defines this root gimmel-lamed-shin (galash) as “winnow” and “emptying as descending.”
Winnowing one of the av melachos of Shabbos means: “To remove (the unwanted coverings of seeds) from grain by throwing the grain up in the air and letting the wind blow the unwanted parts away.”
Related verbs Rav Hirsch writes are: kuf-lamed-samech “to mock; deride; scoff at; scorn.” But this verb also means “to praise; laud.” Seemingly the complete opposite.
And kuf-lamed-shin “to thin out; rarefy.” Also a meaning of separating which can be for bad or good. Rare doesn’t always have a positive connotation.
Many things overflow but whether it’s scalding coffee boiling pots heaping garbage bins malfunctioning toilets or our tempers — it’s always too much even of something that’s not inherently negative. None of the above is inherently negative. They just become that way when they get too hot or too much or we try to fit them into something not equipped to hold them.
When a pot boils over it doesn’t mean there was too much in the pot to begin with it just means there’s too much heat and too much in the pot for the size of the pot to contain the combination. When someone’s temper boils over there’s too much anger and not enough space makom to contain it.
This is especially true as Makom is also a name for G-d. When someone’s temper boils over it’s a combination of too much anger and not enough G-d at that moment to temper it.
We can overflow with materialism. We can also overflow with spirituality. Shefa brachos an abundance of brachah. Kos yeshuos esa the cup of salvation I will lift (Tehillim 116:13).
We can learn to enjoy what we have even if it’s a bit less than we wanted or less than we expected or less than what others have — especially if that bit less allows us to enjoy what we have more. Learn to separate our chaff from our wheat. To mock and deride what needs to be mocked and derided. To praise and laud what needs praising and lauding.
We may sometimes negatively overflow — metaphorically boil over slide from topic to topic. Some of us G-d forbid may still be counted as “empty ones among you.” But each of us is precious to G-d “as dear to Me as Yaakov and his sons.” And each of us can exchange a life boiling over for one overflowing with good.
Rabi Yochanan said: Whoever makes a brachah over a full cup of wine will receive a portion without limitations [meitzarim] as the pasuk says: “To the west and south he will inherit” (Devarim 33:23). Rabi Yosi bar Chanina says: He will merit and inherit two Worlds: This World and the Next World (Brachos 51a).
“Meitzarim ” has the root mem-tzadi-reish as does Mitzrayim. In Mitzrayim our limitations were both physical and spiritual. When we are overflowing in the right directions our world is free of those spiritual limitations. And Pesach is zman cheiruseinu the time of our freedom. Leaving Mitzrayim means breaking free from what’s holding us back not just Seder night but permanently.
David Hamelech’s cup in the Next World will hold 221 logs as it says “My cup is overflowing (revayah) and 221 in gematria is revayah” (Yoma 76a).
May only good overflow into our lives in This World and the Next. May our redemption this Pesach both internal and external spill over into the rest of sefirah and the rest of the year for ourselves our families and all Am Yisrael.