There’s a closing moment in the Seder when everything stops.
Dramatically, climactically, the door is opened.
But instead of opening the door to a new day—
to liberation and freedom—
instead of gratitude… instead of redemption…
we say:
“Pour out Your wrath…”
Not on Egypt.
Not on Pharaoh.
But on the nations.
I am sure that I am not alone in cringing, mumbling, maybe even skipping this incantation, but this year it feels particularly inappropriate. Not because we don’t have enemies amongst the Nations and not because antisemitism has not raised its ugly head in all the expected places, because we do and it has.
But because in the last two and a half years—
at the thousands of funerals, of those butchered on Oct 7th, of hostages who perished or soldiers that fell, when Israelis had every reason to say it.
I didn’t hear it…
Not all the funerals were broadcast or streamed, and I didn’t watch them all, not by a long shot. There’s been no statistical study—but from those I did watch, and from everything I’ve heard—
There was no language of revenge.
No “pour out Your wrath.”
Just stories.
Memories.
A celebration of life.
And the same is true of the Kibbutz Haggadot written after October 7th:
But not calls for revenge.
We have a word for that:
Resilience.
The beginning of healing.
Not the absence of anger—
but the refusal to let anger define the story.
And yet the Haggadah says:
שְׁפֹךְ חֲמָתְךָ אֶל־הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יְדָעוּךָ
וְעַל־מַמְלָכוֹת אֲשֶׁר בְּשִׁמְךָ לֹא קָרָאוּ
כִּי אָכַל אֶת־יַעֲקֹב
וְאֶת־נָוֵהוּ הֵשַׁמּוּ
שְׁפָךְ עֲלֵיהֶם זַעְמֶךָ
וַחֲרוֹן אַפְּךָ יַשִּׂיגֵם
תִּרְדֹּף בְּאַף וְתַשְׁמִידֵם
מִתַּחַת שְׁמֵי ה׳
Pour your wrath upon the nations that did not know You and upon the kingdoms that did not call upon Your Name! Since they have consumed Ya’akov and laid waste his habitation (Psalms 79:6-7). Pour out Your fury upon them and the fierceness of Your anger shall reach them (Psalms 69:25)! You shall pursue them with anger and eradicate them from under the skies of the Lord (Lamentations 3:66).
According to modern scholarship the “Pour Out Your Wrath” prayer is not an original composition but rather a combination of biblical verses. It seems to be a later addition to the Machzor Vitry (11th Century) and there is no evidence of these verses being recited outside Germany or France before this period. See: JPS Commentary on the Haggadah, Joseph Tabory, 2008 pp 53-4
Professor Israel Yuval, an expert in Medieval Judaism and the relationship between Jews and Christians in that era, situates “Pour Out Your Wrath” within the broader pagan and Christian curse-incantation tradition..
It is an incantation with a context—
but it is not ours.
It is a prayer forged in a world where Jews had no power—
only memory… and words.
Modern Jews did something entirely predictable—
and quietly radical.
They wrote (or found) a counter-prayer:
👉 Shefokh Ahavatekha — “Pour out Your love.”
שְׁפֹךְ אַהֲבָתְךָ עַל הַגּוֹיִים אֲשֶׁר יְדָעוּךָ
וְעַל מַמְלָכוֹת אֲשֶׁר בְּשִׁמְךָ קוֹרְאִים
בִּגְלַל חֲסָדִים שֶׁהֵם עוֹשִׂים עִם יַעֲקֹב
וּמְגִנִּים עַל עַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל מִפְּנֵי אוֹכְלֵיהֶם.
יִזְכּוּ לִרְאוֹת בְּסֻכַּת בְּחִירֶיךָ
וְלִשְׂמֹחַ בְּשִׂמְחַת גּוֹיֶיךָ
Pour out Your love on the nations that know You
And on the kingdoms that call upon Your Name
For the loving-kindness that they perform with Jacob
And their defense of the People of Israel
In the face of those that would devour them.
May they be privileged to see
The Succah of peace spread for Your chosen ones
And rejoice in the joy of Your nations.
Here’s the part no one tells you:
👉 This text may not be ancient at all.
Scholars have shown:
The “medieval manuscript” may never have existed
The attribution to Worms (1521) is likely fabricated
It may originate with a 20th-century figure, Rabbi Hayyim Bloch
The same scholar associated with other textual forgeries
To which I ask, which Jewish texts have not been fabricated, re-interpreted, “found” or re-purposed. Even the origins of the traditional “Pour Out Your Wrath” are not clear… so… thank you, Rabbi Bloch..
Just as the Israelis over the last few years, celebrated those they have lost, thanked those who had given them shelter and support and dreamed of a brighter future.
Just as our Haggadah inflates the good and opens the door, with a glass half full on the table to Elijah the Prophet of hope.
So too, we are entitled to claim that pouring out love is the more authentic Jewish response.
And ask: Which one sounds more like us?
Israel Yuval argues that Shefokh Hamatkha is a response—in the form of a curse-incantation—to:
Crusades
massacres
humiliation
powerlessness
A prayer that says: God, do the justice we cannot.
But Yuval doesn’t stop there.
He points to something almost hidden in the tradition.
Below is a text of a piyut (liturgical poem) preserved in our Selichot recited up until today on Erev Rosh Hashanah attributed to Rabbi Simeon b. Isaac of the 10th century (Mainz Germany) that uses the same violent language as Pour Out Your Wrath—but directs it elsewhere.
אויל המתעה מרגיז ומחטיא בלעהו קלעהו ועוד בל יסטיא
עול המגאל ומטנף טהורים דחהו מחהו מלבות והרהורים
התל המהתל ומפתל ישרים וכחהו שכחהו ולא יקומו אשרים
זבוב המארב במפתחי הלב חנקהו נקהו ולב חדש תלבלב
טמא המזוהם ומסית להאשים יעהו צעהו בלי ענוש בענשים
כלי אשר כליו רעים לפתהו כפתהו מקום בית מרעים
מנון המפנק מנוער לאחרית נדחהו קדחהו מהשאיר לו שארית
שאור המעפש ומבאיש העסה עקרהו נקרהו חטא בלי לשא
פתלתל המנקש ומעקש דרכים צרפהו ערפהו בלי היות סרוכים
קוץ המכאיב וסלון הממאיר רעלהו העלהו כרם להפאר
שפוך מי טוהר דמים להדיח תחטאנו באזוב תכבס ותריח
שני מתלבן עולם ונושע ברחמים יצדיק חקר כבודם לשעשע
חוזק זרע יחשוף וישיב וכשנים קדמוניות אותנו ישיב
Destroy and cast away the seductive folly which excites man to sin, so that he may mislead us no more.
Cast away and blot out from our hearts and thoughts the pollution which defiles and pollutes the pure.
Mislead the deceiver, who causes the straight to be crooked; rebuke him and discard him so that idolatry shall not be established.
Strangle and clear away the gadfly that lurks at the gate of the heart, so that a new heart may flower (within us).
Sweep utterly away the unclean and foul who seduces us to sin, that he may not cause us to be sorely punished.
Seize the rogue whose instruments are evil, bind him fast, lest the house of the evildoers rise again.
Repel and burn him that was brought up delicately from a child, and has in the end become a master, so that no remnant be left of him.
Remove and destroy the moldy leaven which spoils the dough, so that it may not involve us in sin.
Cause the intriguer, who ensnares us and leads us astray to be burnt out; break his neck, so that he should have no followers.
Poison and uproot the pricking thorn and piercing briar, lest it spoil the vineyard.
Pour out water of purification to rinse away our guilt, purge us with hyssop, and wash us clean.
Let the scarlet (sin) be whitened that we may be saved for ever; may he justify us in his mercy, and delight in the search of our glory.
May he lay bare his powerful arm and bring back our captives, and restore us to our former condition as in the days of old.
From: The Authorised Selichot for the Whole Year by Abraham Rosenfeld 1978 p. 152 Selichot for the Eve of the New Year.
שְׂאוֹר הַמְּעֻפָּשׁ וּמַבְאִישׁ הָעִסָּה
“The moldy leaven that spoils the dough”
Scholars note about litugical collections such as the Sleichot or the Haggadah: “When such a volume was compiled, it became customary to add poetical pieces. ...These piyyuṭim were not written for this service, but were selected from other collections.”
So we will never know which service Simeon b. Isaac intended his piyyut to be a part of.
We do know that in this piyut:
It is that which is corrupt—
or stale—within.
The impulse that:
distorts
inflates
seduces
poisons
bitters
And now we return to where this whole Madlik Haggadah began:
Rabbi Alexandrei:
רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם…
שְׂאוֹר שֶׁבָּעִסָּה
וְשִׁעְבּוּד מַלְכֻיּוֹת
What prevents us from doing Your will?
👉 The leaven in the dough
👉 And the subjugation of kingdoms
Two obstacles.
Not one.
The world outside
The ferment within
So the Haggadah leaves the door open.
Not just for Elijah.
But for a choice:
Pour out wrath.
Pour out love.
Or burn—beat back—and pour out the bitterness within.
Because the deepest freedom isn’t leaving Egypt.
It’s refusing to carry it with you.
As for me, I’ll be celebrating my seder on a Caribbean beach, and at this point I’ll teach my family Shlomo Carlebach’s Shifchi CaMayim Libeich…
שִׁפְכִ֤י כַמַּ֙יִם֙ לִבֵּ֔ךְ נֹ֖כַח פְּנֵ֣י אֲדֹנָ֑י
Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord
Hag Sameaych!
Sefaria Source Sheet: https://voices.sefaria.org/sheets/105867
