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Why is a fifth cup of wine placed on the seder table?

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A fifth cup of wine, Elijah’s cup, is set out for the prophet Elijah, and a door is left open for him because his appearance is thought to herald the coming of the messiah. The tradition stems from an interpretive disagreement. In Exodus 6, God makes four promises to Moses, but then, per some interpretations, God adds a fifth. There is supposed to be a cup of wine for each promise. The rabbinic interpreters who wrote the Talmud could not agree whether four or five cups of wine should be part of the seder. Because the return of Elijah is supposed to clear up all legal and textual misunderstandings and debates in Judaism, it gradually became the tradition to set out the fifth cup of wine for Elijah.