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.
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