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Should I use red or white wine for the Four Cups at the Seder?

by Rabbi Shlomo Chein

  

Library » Holidays » Passover » Seder » The Wine | Subscribe | What is RSS?

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It is preferable to use red wine for the Four Cups of wine at the Seder, but if you don't have any, white wine is fine.1

There are two reasons for this:2

1. We find a reference in scripture to (fine) wine being red, as King Solomon writes3 "Do not look at wine when it is red".4

2. It is a reminder of the innocent Jewish blood spilled under Pharaoh’s oppressive regime in Egypt. (Parenthetically, for this very reason Jews in Europe who lived under the fear of "blood libels" specifically did not use red wine).

Footnotes

  • 1. Shulchan Aruch Harav 472:26
  • 2. Ibid.
  • 3. Proverbs 23:31
  • 4. For the meaning of this verse see it in context, and commentaries there.

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Seder
Festive meal eaten on the first two nights of the holiday of Passover (In Israel, the Seder is observed only the first night of the holiday). Seder highlights include: reading the story of the Exodus, eating Matzah and bitter herbs, and drinking four cups of wine.
Solomon
Son of King David, and succeeded him on the throne of Israel in the year 836 BCE. he was the wisest man to ever live. He built the first Holy Temple and authored several books of the Bible.