After the Birkat Hamazon, and before “lo lanu” and the other texts of the fourth cup, the widespread custom is to recite a selection of verses beginning with “Shefoch Chamatcha.” The present Ashkenazic custom is the recital of four verses: Psalms 79:6, 79:7, and 69:25 and Eichah 3:66. (Sometimes, Jeremiah 10:25 is used, instead of Psalms 79:7. The difference is not significant.)

The translations:

• “Pour out thy wrath on the nations that did not know you and on the kingdoms that did not call thy name.”
• “For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste to his habitation.”
• “Pour out thy indignation on them and let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.”
• “Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.”
• (The present custom among Sefardim is only the first two verses.)

When and why did this custom arise? Of course, the custom of reciting these verses is troublesome to our modern ears. The good news is that this custom is not found in the Talmud or the Geonim. Nor is it found in the seder rituals of our luminaries, that is either in Rashi (died 1105) or Rambam (died 1204). (For the evidence that it was lacking in Rashi, see Daniel Goldschmidt, “Haggadah Shel Pesach,” 1960, page 62, number 8.) But, admittedly, this custom is found among many of the Rishonim.

The earliest source for the recital of a “Shefoch Chamatcha” collection of verses is Machzor Vitry, a work composed in Vitry—a town in northern France—by a disciple of Rashi. We have an early manuscript of this work which can be dated to the second quarter of the 12th century. This manuscript has a collection of 8 verses. Aside from the above four verses, the others are: Psalms 2:9 (“crush them with a rod of iron …”), Eichah 3:65 (“thy curse unto them,”), Psalms 69:29 (“let them be blotted out from the book of the living,”) and Psalms 69:23. See Arye Goldschmidt’s edition of Machzor Vitry, page 462, manuscript ש.

One approach is to assume that the recital started in this source with these eight verses and that most of the other communities shortened the collection. This is the approach that I prefer.

Probably, reciting these verses was a custom that arose as a reaction to the First Crusade of 1096. Aside from the eight verses in the above early manuscript of Machzor Vitry, the later manuscripts of Machzor Vitry add more verses. Moreover, a later source from elsewhere in northern France, Haggadat Tzefat, has 12 verses. A siddur from England, in 1287, has 17 verses. See Menachem Kasher, Haggadah Sheleimah, pages 177-178.

A leading Haggadah scholar, Daniel Goldschmidt, wrote in 1960 that he believed that the custom started with only two verses (the first two that we recite today). He suggested that the practice may have begun by individuals, before being later recorded in Machzor Vitry.

The more recent leading work on the Haggadah, Haggadat Chazal (1998), by Shmuel and Ze’ev Safrai, takes the position (page 174) that the practice originated with only one verse: the “Shefoch Chamatcha” verse. They take this position because many sources later than Machzor Vitry have only this verse. But, in my view, this was likely the result of a reduction from the original custom of more verses. As Abraham Bloch writes, there was probably a “justifiable fear that the vehemence of Machzor Vitry’s long text might provoke a hostile gentile reaction.” See his book, “The Biblical and Historical Background of Jewish Customs and Ceremonies (1980),” page 239.

(One problem that arises—in researching this topic—is that Rishonim refer to the recital of “Shefoch” many times but, typically, we cannot tell how many verses each recited! See, e.g., Tosafot at Bereishis 14a.)

I have to point out that two other customs occur presently at the time of our recital of “Shefoch:” the opening of the door and the pouring of the cup for Eliyahu. The former is the remnant of an earlier custom, and the latter is a custom that began later than the introduction of “Shefoch.” The origin of “Shefoch” has nothing to do with these two customs.

Once it was decided to introduce the collection of eight “Shefoch” verses (or, in the view of the other scholars, the original one or two verses), there had to be a decision where to place them. The place it was decided to recite them was just prior to the pouring of the fourth cup and the recital of the second part of the Hallel. The second part of the Hallel begins with Psalm 115 (“lo lanu”), which deals with idol-worshiping gentiles. Moreover, the rest of the chapters of Hallel are understood by Amoraim, in the Talmud (Pesachim 118a), to include references to “techiyat ha-metim,” “chevlei shel Mashiach,” “shibud malchiyot” and “milchemet Gog u’Magog.” (See also Rashi to Psalm 118:10 and Midrash Tehillim to this verse (both taking this verse to refer to the war of Gog and Magog).) Thus, our “Shefoch Chamatcha” collection is recited at an appropriate time at the seder. (See Sifrei, pages 176 and 238.) At any earlier section of the Haggadah, it would be out of place—as we are still in the process of reliving the Exodus.

Also, several of the Rishonim (e.g., Meiri and Ritva) justify the recital of “Shefoch Chamatcha” on the basis that one of the interpretations of the four cups is that they symbolize cups of punishment that God will, eventually, make the nations drink. (See Jerusalem Talmud Pesachim 10:1 and, similarly, Genesis Rabbah 88:5.) Thus, even if this is not the actual reason for the introduction of the verses (as they claim), reciting “Shefoch Chamatcha” at the beginning of one of the four cup sections is justifiable.

Other early sources for “Shefoch Chamatcha” in France and Germany are Rabbi Judah Sir Leon of Paris (died 1224) cited in Rabbi Moses of Coucy, northern France (13th century), Rabbi Yehuda ben Yakar of Northern France and Barcelona (died circa 1210), Rokeach in Worms (died circa 1230) and Rabbi Isaac of Vienna (Or Zarua, died circa 1250). (As to Rabbi Yehuda ben Yakar, it seems that he only recited the first verse. As to Rokeach, he recited four verses like we do today. As to the others, we do not know.)

Someone named “Hayim Bloch” pretended that he had discovered a 16th century text from Worms, with the following additional version of “Shefoch” besides the negative one: “Pour out thy love on the nations who have known you … due to the kindness they do for the seed of Jacob and they shield your people, Israel, from those who would devour them. May they live to see the goodness of your chosen ones and to rejoice in the joy of your nation.” This forgery has misled many. For example, it was included approvingly in the Haggadah published by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in 2003, at pages 69-70. In the most recent version of this Haggadah, the Applbaum edition—published by Maggid in 2013—it is included as well. (Bloch is also known to have forged other material.)

I thank my friend, Sam Borodach, for his assistance with this article.

Mitchell First can be reached at [email protected]. His son, Daniel, told him that many years ago, he was attending a seder at Yale that was also attended by some non-Jews, and that the Orthodox rabbi leading the seder decided to simply skip the “Shefoch” section!