17 Jan PARASHAT VAERA: THE FOUR CUPS AND OUR ANCESTORS’ “DISCOUNT”

In the beginning of Para-
shat Vaera we read of the

famous “Arba Leshonot

Ge’ula” – “four expres-
sions of redemption.” Hash- em told Moshe to convey to

Beneh Yisrael His promise to “take them” from
Egypt, to “save them” from bondage, to “re- deem them,” and to “take them” as His special
nation (“Ve’hoseti,” “Ve’hisalti,” “Ve’ga’alti,”
“Ve’lakahti”). Many people are familiar with
the teaching of the Talmud Yerushalmi in
Masechet Pesahim that the four cups of wine
we drink at the Seder on Pesah commemorate
these four promises.

What is less known, however, is the sec-
ond explanation of the four cups given by the

Yerushalmi. Surprisingly, the Yerushalmi asso-
ciates this Misva with the dream of Pharaoh’s

cup-bearer, as he reported it to Yosef. The
cup-bearer dreamt of squeezing grapes into

Pharaoh’s cup and then handing the cup to Pha-
raoh, and Yosef correctly interpreted this vision

as foretelling the cup-bearer’s imminent release
from prison and reinstatement to his post. The
word “Kos” (“cup”) appears four times in the
story of the cup-bearer’s dream, and we thus
commemorate this dream by drinking four
cups of wine at the Seder on Pesah.
The obvious question arises, what connection
is there between the cup-bearer’s dream and the

Pesah celebration? Why is it important to re-
member this dream as we celebrate the Exodus

from Egypt?

The answer can be found in the special “dis-
count” which Beneh Yisrael received in Egypt.

In one of Hashem’s prophecies to Abraham

Avinu, He informed the patriarch that his de-
scendants would endure 400 years of suffering

and persecution in a foreign land. In Parashat
Bo (12:40), the Torah tells us that the precise
number of years was actually 430. Yet, Beneh
Yisrael ended up spending only 210 years in
Egypt. Many different explanations have been
given for this remarkable “discount.” Some
explain that the work was so difficult and so
intense that Beneh Yisrael completed in just
210 years the amount of slave labor that would
normally be performed over the course of 400

years. Others claim that Beneh Yisrael’s su-
pernatural population growth in Egypt meant

that the slave labor was performed by an ex-
ceptionally large number of people, such that

they completed the decreed period of slavery
in just 210 years. Another famous answer is
that Beneh Yisrael had plummeted to the “49th
level of impurity,” and had they remained any
longer, they would have fallen to the 50th level,
from which they would have been unable to

recover. And so although they were to have re-
mained for another 190 years, Hashem could

not let them stay a moment longer.
Regardless of how we understand the reason

for this “discount,” we can trace its roots to Yo-
sef, specifically, to the system he set in place

when he served as vizier over Egypt.
Towards the end of Parashat Vayigash, we
read that during the years of famine in Egypt,
Yosef essentially revamped the country’s entire

economy. On behalf of Pharaoh, Yosef pur-
chased all the agricultural lands

in Egypt in exchange for grain,
such that the people worked as

serfs for Pharaoh. Yosef estab-
lished that the people must pay

20 percent of their produce to
Pharaoh, and they may then
keep the other 80 percent. The
Torah emphasizes that Yosef
made this a “Hok” – an official
rule, that the farmers paid 20
percent and kept the remaining
80 percent.
At first glance, it seems difficult to understand
why the Torah gives us this information. Why
is it important for us to know the economic
policy that Yosef enacted when he ruled over
Egypt?

The answer, perhaps, is that Yosef, propheti-
cally foreseeing the slavery and bondage that

Beneh Yisrael would soon endure, wanted to
help them by establishing a rule allowing an 80
percent “discount.” The policy Yosef enacted
for the Egyptians was applicable also to Beneh

Yisrael vis-à-vis the decree that they would en-
dure a 430-year period of exile. The Midrash

teaches that although Beneh Yisrael spent 210
years in Egypt, they were enslaved only when
Miriam, Moshe’s sister, was born – 86 years
before the Exodus. It emerges, then, that Beneh

Yisrael suffered for only 20 percent of the pe-
riod that was decreed – 86 years, instead of 430

years. This is the deeper significance of Yosef’s
enacting this policy in Egypt.
With this in mind, we can return to the story

of the cup-bearer’s dream, and understand
why the dream is worthy of commemoration
on Pesah. The word “Kos” in Gematria equals
86. When Yosef saw how the word “Kos”

was used four times in the context of the cup-
bearer’s dream, he realized that he was being

assigned a mission – to reduce four times the
value of the word “Kos” (86) from the decree

issued against his people. Therefore, upon ris-
ing to the position of vizier, in the capacity of

which he managed the Egyptian economy, he
put in place this policy of paying just 20 percent
– so that Beneh Yisrael would be able to leave
after “paying” just 20 percent of the period of
slavery that had been decreed, 86 years instead
of 430 years.

This is why we commemorate the cup-bear-
er’s dream at the Seder. This dream is what fa-
cilitated the 80-percent “discount” that our an-
cestors received. The four instances of the word

“Kos” in the context of that dream is what led
to the reduction of four times the word “Kos”
from the decree of slavery, enabling Beneh Yis-