When we opened the door to the nations on Seder night were we really wishing that G-d take vengeance and destroy them all? Do we actually pray that the peoples of the world be exterminated? Or is there a deeper meaning to the invocation we all recently recited past midnight “Shefoch chamascha”?

After we filled our fourth cup on Seder night we opened the front door as a reminder that this is a leil shimurim a night of protection and that in the merit of our faith the Redemption will come. We then recited these psukim:

“Pour out Your fury to the nations that have not known You and upon kingdoms that have not called on Your Name. For he has consumed Yaakov and made his habitation desolate” (Tehillim 79:6-7). “Pour out Your rage upon them and let Your wrath overtake them” (Tehillim 69:25). “Pursue with wrath and destroy them from under the heavens of Hashem” (Eichah 3:66).

What exactly do we mean when we cry aloud “Shefoch chamascha — Pour out Your fury” — are we actually hoping that the peoples of the world will be exterminated? Are we so vengeful? Rather we are asking for the downfall of the tyrannical regimes that are responsible for anti-Semitism and persecution of the Jews. This is what underlies the custom of opening the door. We want the non-Jews to hear it as well.

This passage in the Haggadah however has been a point of controversy sparking attacks by Jews of various stripes who — ignorant of its source — think it an inappropriate holiday theme. Why was it placed in the Haggadah people demand and why at this particular juncture between the Yom Tov meal and the recitation of the second half of Hallel? How indeed are we to understand these frightening words “Pour out Your fury to the nations ” which sound so chauvinistic and racist if interpreted superficially?

Let us examine the passage more closely in order to reach a deeper understanding. 

Note that just before raising our voices in this call for an outpouring of fury we fill the last of the Four Cups and also the Cup of Eliyahu the fifth cup that is filled after the meal and not drunk. Then a member of the household gets up and opens the door the main door that faces the public domain.

Each one of these acts leads us to a deeper understanding of the passage in question. In the series of mitzvos that make up the Seder we have come to the fourth cup. Among the many symbolic meanings of the Four Cups one is an allusion to the four cups of poison that await the four evil kingdoms that have ruled over the world since ancient times — and will continue ruling until the final throes of history. According to our Sages these kingdoms take the form of four cultures that have dominated the world each in its own time of glory. These four kingdoms are:

1. Babylonia responsible for the destruction of the First Temple.

2. Persia the Paras of Achashveirosh and Haman who decreed genocide upon the Jewish people.

3. Greece which nearly succeeded in assimilating the Jewish nation into its Hellenistic culture.

4. Rome or Edom the culture in which we are currently exiled.

The Four Cups remind us that while we were indeed redeemed from Egypt we are still in galus today as we continue looking forward to Redemption and the punishment of our enemies.

Thus the fourth cup represents Edom the Roman exile of Western culture with all its ramifications. For generations in Europe and in Muslim countries it has served as a reminder of the terrible anti-Semitism that wears a thousand ugly faces of the persecutions of the blood libels. This is the galus in which the recitation of Shefoch chamascha was instituted. 

By association however filling the fourth cup also awakens the hope of Redemption in our hearts and confirmation of the belief in the coming of Mashiach the final Redeemer. This final geulah the sources tell us will be announced by Eliyahu HaNavi and therefore we pour out another cup in his honor.

At this point in the Seder it is time to resume our recitation of Hallel half of which was said before the meal. The first half of Hallel is an outpouring of praise to Gd for having redeemed us from Egypt and now we say the second part which focuses on the future Redemption the tumultuous world events that will give rise to it and the tremendous spiritual revolution that will come in its wake bringing tikun to the entire human race.

And then at the moment that all these memories hopes and yearnings come rushing into the heart of the oppressed Jew caught in the grip of one harsh regime or another he rises up and performs an act of faith and hope for the coming Redemption. He shows the foreign nation by whose hand he is suffering that he has no fear of his oppressors and that deep inside he is a free man a ben chorin. Throughout history even those who suffered through the darkest most oppressive places of galus would at that point in the Seder open the door wide face the street that held so much trouble and anguish for him and call out in a loud voice the words that express his confident belief in a better future: “Pour out Your fury.” Let the gentile neighbors hear; the neighbors of every Jewish home observing the Seder on this night.…

And if the non-Jew were to listen and understand the outpouring of rage issuing from the mouth of the Jew he would be moved by the realization of how great the Jewish spirit is. For despite all the anguish and suffering we proclaim out loud fearlessly only our hope that tyranny should disappear from the earth and our belief that the world will be redeemed. We actually restrain our bitter feelings and despite everything they’ve done to us throughout the generations we do not ask Gd for “death to all the goyim ” but ask only for the downfall of the evil leaders who arrogantly oppress our people. Let them come to ruin not their peoples. Even at this moment of rage we preserve the purity of our prayer.

This is the prayer Shefoch chamascha. Examine it closely and you will see how it expresses the high moral standard of the Jewish people and the ability to rise above natural feelings of hatred and revenge.

The words shefoch chamascha appear in two places in the Tanach once in Yirmiyahu (10:25) and once in Tehillim as cited above. But there are small differences between the two psukim and the author of the Haggadah chose the pasuk from Tehillim for this prayer. In Tehillim it says “Shefoch chamascha el hagoyim ” rather than “al hagoyim ” as it says in Yirmiyahu.

This is a fundamental difference. For even a slight change in wording signals a change in meaning. The pasuk in Tehillim which is used in the Haggadah is saying “Bring Your fury to them” (but not upon them) — make it known to them to those who have not known You that You have used them to bring decrees upon us. But the pasuk goes on to say “and upon kingdoms” — destroy in Your wrath the tyrannical regimes (Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch on Tehillim).

Thus it becomes clear that this prayer is not talking about destroying nations but about the fall and obliteration of evil regimes before the eyes of all the peoples of the world in such a way that they will comprehend that they are on the wrong path and their way of life is mistaken and that their wicked treatment of the Jewish people the bearers of Gd’s word is a path to their own downfall.

We’ve witnessed this in our own times as the Communist government of the Soviet Union collapsed with scarcely a drop of bloodshed. Who would have believed that such an entrenched atheistic regime could disappear from the face of the earth without a violent struggle? Yet it happened — that massive falsehood simply collapsed into itself. This is the meaning of “to the nations” to show them the truth right before their eyes. And only then will the downfall of tyranny give rise to regret for the past in the heart of humanity. This regret will open the way for the redemption of the entire human race may it happen speedily.

(From Rabbi Grylak’s commentary on the Haggadah Haggadah Ufishrah)