Elijah's Cup and Elijah in a Box

The story of Elijah is important to the Passover holiday in many ways. First, because the story of Elijah's coming is the first signal to the Messiah's coming. Second, Elijah's cup of wine provides another important ritual aspect to the Passover ceremony. Finally, it is a way for children to be involved with the holiday. Elijah is a prophet of the Torah and is thought to be the first sign of the Messiah's arrival. This biblical tale is said to have become part of the Passover ceremony because of a disagreement of how many glasses of wine should be drunk during the Seder. "As a compromise, they [the rabbis] put an empty glass on the table...they decided, since the prophet Elijah will solve all problems when he comes, to leave the final decision up to him. Soon, they began to fill the empty glass with wine, hoping to lure Elijah and thus hasten the arrival of the Messiah" (Chaikin, 40). Thus is the legend of how Elijah's cup came to be. Children are involved in this ceremony because they open the door in hopes of letting Elijah in; "there is a legend that Elijah appears at every Seder and sips some wine from the cup reserved for him. If the children are very observant they may notice that after the door is closed, there is a little less wine in Elijah's cup" (ed. David Schwartz, 27). This ritual is a fun thing for Jewish children to participate in and it is way for them to be taught the stories of the bible.  

While scrolling through Facebook, I saw this picture and immediately thought it was hysterical. My non- religious studies major/ non-Jewish friends did not see the humor in this. The Elijah in a Box is a perfect example of someone turning ritual in to something that could be considered sacrilegious. It is also a great example of ritual being taken to the mainstream. I found this fake advertisement to be extremely clever. First, because the person who made it clearly knew and understood the legend of Elijah. Second, the fact that it is $18 is also significant. In Hebrew every letter as a numerical value associated with it. The Hebrew word Chai  means life, and its numeric value is 18. Elijah is supposed to bring about a better life for everyone on Earth. I think the Elijah in a Box advertisement is an extremely clever way of taking an older tradition and putting it into a modern context.






Sources:
Chaikin, Miriam. The Story and Meaning of Passover: Ask Another Question. New York: Clarion Books, 1985.
Schwartz, David (ed). Haggadah for Passover. Chicago: Nisan 5776, 2016