מוזגים כוס של אליהו ופותחים את הדלת:
שְׁפֹךְ חֲמָתְךָ אֶל־הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יְדָעוּךָ וְעַל־מַמְלָכוֹת אֲשֶׁר בְּשִׁמְךָ לֹא קָרָאוּ. כִּי אָכַל אֶת־יַעֲקֹב וְאֶת־נָוֵהוּ הֵשַׁמּוּ. שְׁפָךְ־עֲלֵיהֶם זַעֲמֶךָ וַחֲרוֹן אַפְּךָ יַשִּׂיגֵם. תִּרְדֹף בְּאַף וְתַשְׁמִידֵם מִתַּחַת שְׁמֵי ה'.
We pour the cup of Eliyahu and open the door.
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).
ר' יהושע אומר בניסן נגאלו בניסן עתידין ליגאל מנלן אמר קרא (שמות יב, מב) ליל שמורים ליל המשומר ובא מששת ימי בראשית
Rabbi Yehoshua says: In Nisan our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt; and in Nisan in the future the Jewish people will be redeemed in the final redemption. The Gemara asks: From where do we derive that the final redemption will be in Nisan? The verse states: “It is a night of watching for the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt; this is the Lord’s night of watching, for all the children of Israel throughout their generations” (Exodus 12:42). This teaches that the night of Passover is a night that has been continuously watched, i.e., set aside for the purpose of redemption, from the six days of Creation, and it will continue to be so until the final redemption.
וטעם לארבעה כוסות אלו כנגד ד' לשונות גאולה הכתוב בפ' וארא. לכן אמו' לבני ישראל אני ה' והוצאתי אתכם וכו' והצלתי אתכם מעבודתם. וגאלתי אתכם בזרוע נטויה. ולקחתי אתכם לי לעם. ד' כוסות כנגד והוצאתי והצלתי וגאלתי ולקחתי.
The four cups are said to allude to the four terms of redemption mentioned in Parshat Va-era (Exodus 6:6): "Say, therefore, to the children of Israel: I am the Lord. I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements. I will take you to be my people and I will be your God." The four cups are alluded to in the words: hotzeiti (I will free you), hitzalti (I will deliver you), ga'alti (I will redeem you) and lakahti (I will take you)."
Certainly one could make a case, that the antidote for "Pour out Your Wrath" with it's emphasis on the disruptive (חבלי דמשיח) nature of redemption, would be to focus on the harmony to follow....
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.
To offer a more authentic alternative, it might make sense to review different trends in Jewish Messianism from the master Gershom Scholem...
The apocalyptists have always cherished a pessimistic view of the world. Their optimism, their hope, is not directed to what history will bring forth, but to that which will arise in its ruin, free at last and undisguised.
This catastrophic character of the redemption, which is essential to the apocalyptic conception, is pictured in all of these texts and traditions in glaring images. It finds manifold expression: in world wars and revolutions, in epidemics, famine, and economic catastrophe; but to an equal degree in apostasy and the desecration of God’s name, in forgetting of the Torah and the upsetting of all moral order to the point of dissolving the laws of nature.
Little wonder that in one such context the Talmud cites the bald statement of three famous teachers of the third and fourth centuries: “May he come, but I do not want to see him.” From this perspective, the "Pour out Your Wrath" fits perfectly between the 3rd and 4th cup as we experience the "Birth Pangs" of the Messiah and Judgement and retribution begins. (see The Messianic Idea in Judaism)
As we do, we realize that for some very strange reason, the prohibition of owning, seeing or benefiting from Leaven (Hametz) does not appear in our Haggadah. This is surprising, since as any homemaker will testify it represents the most daunting and challenging aspect of Passover preparation... and therefore, Redemption preparation. (true... men wrote the haggadah, so what would they know? see Feminist postscript at end)
Noted that the Haggadah mentions Leaven as the reciprocal of matzah (cf. on all other nights we eat leaven and unleaven), but the aspect purging leaven from one's property and not deriving any benefit or enjoyment are nowhere mentioned. Ironically, it is in the purging of leaven that we find alternative parallels to Pour out Your Wrath...
ור' אלכסנדרי בתר דמצלי אמר הכי רבון העולמים גלוי וידוע לפניך שרצוננו לעשות רצונך ומי מעכב שאור שבעיסה ושעבוד מלכיות יהי רצון מלפניך שתצילנו מידם ונשוב לעשות חוקי רצונך בלבב שלם.
After Rabbi Alexandri prayed, he would say the following:
Master of the Universe, it is revealed and known before You
that our will is to perform Your will, and what prevents us?
On the one hand, the yeast in the dough, the evil inclination that is within every person;
and the subjugation to the kingdoms on the other.
May it be Your will
that You will deliver us from their hands, of both the evil inclination and the foreign kingdoms,
so that we may return to perform the edicts of Your will with a perfect heart.
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְפָנֶיךָ ה' אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ וֵא-לֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ כְּשֵׁם שֶׁאֲנִי מְבַעֵר חָמֵץ מִבֵּיתִי וּמֵרְשׁוּתִי כַּךְ ה' אֱ-לֹהַי וֵא-לֹהַי אֲבוֹתַי תְּבַעֵר אֶת כָּל הַחִיצוֹנִים וְאֶת רוּחַ הַטּוּמְאָה תְּבַעֵר מִן הָאָרֶץ וְאֶת יִצְרֵנוּ הָרָע תְּבַעֲרֵהוּ מֵאִתָּנוּ וְתִתֶּן לָנוּ לֵב בָּשָׂר וְכָל הַסִטְרָא אַחֲרָא וְכָל הָרִשְׁעָה כְּעָשָׁן תִּכְלֶה וְתַעֲבִיר מֶמְשֶׁלֶת זָדוֹן מִן הָאָרֶץ וְכָל הַמְעִיקִים לַשְׁכִינָה תְּבַעֲרֵם בְּרוּחַ בָּעֵר וּבְרוּחַ מִשְׁפָּט כְּשֵׁם שֶׁבִּעַרְתָּ אֶת מִצְרַיִם וְאֶת אֱלֹהֵיהֶם בַּיָמִים הַהֵם וּבִזְמַן הַזֶּה.
May it be Your will, Lord, our God and God of our fathers, that just as I remove the chametz from my house and from my possession, so shall You remove all the extraneous forces. Remove the spirit of impurity from the earth, remove our evil inclination from us, and grant us a heart of flesh to serve You in truth. Make all the sitra achara (evil inclination), all the kelipot (barriers), and all wickedness be consumed in smoke, and remove the dominion of evil from the earth. Remove with a spirit of destruction and a spirit of judgment all that distress the Shechina, just as You destroyed Egypt and its idols in those days, at this time. Amen, Selah. (kabalistic kavanah recited before the bedikat HaChametz (searching for the Leaven).
The following event, however, reveals the danger that existed in that regard. In the year 1399, a disputation occurred between the convert from Judaism, Peter, and Rabbi Lipmann Mulhausen. The remarkable conclusion of the disputation— the execution of eighty Jews—evokes the impression that this was not a learned debate so much as it was an inquisitorial trial played out against the backdrop of the charge of host desecration [The "host" is the sacred bread used in the Eucharistic service of the Mass]. The central Christian argument was that Jews disdain Christianity and seek to destroy it: “Of all the dough that you knead, you burn a little as an affront to their God [i.e., the Christian God]. Also, on the eve of Passover, the time of the fast [Lent] you burn bread.” The accusations refer to two customs: burning challah (the ritual removal and burning of part of the dough as an equivalent to the dough offering from Temple times, before baking bread) and burning leaven. The apostate from Judaism apparently saw in both a Jewish effort to disparage the host.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth. [Corinthians 5:8]
“the leaven of the Pharisees,” which is “hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1; d. Mark 8:15).
Another possibility is that "leaven" and the purging of leaven came to represent a personal conception of redemption which had been co-opted by Christianity and at least, temporarily, jettisoned by Judaism. Gershom Scholem writes:
Below is a poem (piyut) written by Rabbi Shimon ben Yitzhak Born in Mainz, Germany; an important scholar of his time. As a paytan he composed yozerot, kerovot, selihot, hymns, and rashuyyot le-hatanim. It is probable that he sang his piyutim himself. His piyutim bare traces of the language found in early piyutim, and they are marked by the pain of the persecutions of the Jews in Bar-Isaacs' lifetime. Birth: after circa 970 Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Death: 1020
Isræl Jacob Yuval notes that it has been pointed out by scholars that this "poem cursing the “evil impulse” was stylistically similar to the curse against the Gentiles. This liturgical poem continues alphabetically; the verbs used to curse later on are “sweep him away, hurl him, compel him, banish him, sacrifice him” (see A. M. Haberman quoted in Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by Isræl Jacob Yuval. pp 123-4). This piyut is part of the Erev Rosh HaShanna Selichot, but that does not mean that the author had Selichot in mind.... after all speaking about the Haggadah, scholars note that: "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." Jewish Encyclopedia entry for Haggadah
Judaism, in all of its forms and manifestations, has always maintained a concept of redemption as an event which takes place publicly, on the stage of history and within the community. It is an occurrence which takes place in the visible world and which cannot be conceived apart from such a visible appearance. ... Their eschatology is of a national kind: it speaks of the re-establishment of the House of David, now in ruins, and of the future glory of an Israel returned to God; also of everlasting peace and the turning of all nations toward the one God of Israel and away from heathen cults and images. ...
Christianity conceives of redemption as an event in the spiritual and unseen realm, an event which is reflected in the soul, in the private world of each individual, and which effects an inner transformation which need not correspond to anything outside. But it remains peculiar that this question concerning the inner aspect of the redemption should emerge so late in Judaism—though it finally does emerge with great vehemence." Gershom Scholem - The Messianic Idea in Judaism
אויל המתעה מרגיז ומחטיא בלעהו קלעהו ועוד בל יסטיא
געול 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
Rabbi Simeon b. Isaac, b. Avun (980 - 1040) From: The Authorised Selichot for the Whole Year by Abraham Rosenfeld 1978 p. 152 Selichot for the Eve of the New Year.
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.
Could it be that the purging of the leaven was not left out of the Seder night as the result of a polemic with the Christians, but rather as a result of good old male chauvinism? Listen the the Magid of Mezritch, who is known for elevating the downtrodden and ignored up to the highest realm of the Divine throne....
רבי לוי-יצחק מברדיטשוב ז״ל, משהיה רואה בערבי פסחים נשים עוסקות בניקוי וכשרת הבית והכלים, תוך גירוד, קירצוף, שטיפה ורחיצה, היה אומר כדרך שאומרים בשעת תקיעת-שופר בראש-השנה: ״יהי רצון שאלה המלאכים היוצאים מן קשר״ק (קירצוף, שטיפה, רחיצה, קירוד) יעלו לפני כסה כבודך וימליצו טוב בעדנו״...
והיינו, שכל ההכנות הללו יוצרות מלאכים מליצי-יושר לישראל...
הגדה של פסח, עם מעינה של תורה נעספו על ידי אלכסנדר זושה פרידמן, הוצת פאר תל-אביב 1957
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, when he saw, on the eve of Passover, women engaged in cleaning and kashering the home and kitchen utensils, through scrubbing, washing, scraping and rinsing, would say as they say at the moment of blowing the shofar on Rosh Hassanah: May it be Your will that thee angels that come out of "KiSRIK" (Scraping, Rinsing, washing and scrubbing) rise to Your throne of Your presence and suplicate good for us.... Which means to say, that all these preparations create angels who suplicate on behalf of Israel.
Passover Haggadah with Springs of Torah gathered by Alexander Zusha Freidman, Published by Paer Tel Aviv, 1957 (HEBREW)