Rabbi Yosi the Galilean: Rabbi Weil’s father has given the following reason for the different ways we pour wine when reciting dam va’esh vitimrot haashan, the ten plagues, and Rabbi Yehudah’s abbreviation. One opinion is that we do not take the wine directly from the cup since this would be disrespectful of the ‘cup of blessing; instead we pour wine into a spoon and pour the wine out from the spoon.²³⁷ Others suggest we should do so with the forefinger²³⁸ and Darkei Moshe based on the verse Exodus 8:15, “It is the etzba the finger of God.” Etzba is the forefinger. and still others suggest we should do so with our pinky.²³⁹ There are those whose custom is to do it with the *kamitzah,*the ring finger. Rabbi Weil’s father explains that these different practices are related to the different interpretations of the number of plagues of Rabbis Yosi, Eliezer, and Akiva. The one who says to use the forefinger agrees with Rabbi Yosi who says ten plagues in Egypt and fifty at the sea. Each plague in Egypt was an etzba, a forefinger, according to the language of the Torah. The one who says it is the ring finger agrees with Rabbi Eliezer who argues that each of the plagues in Egypt was like four plagues – the ring finger is the fourth finger. And those who suggest we should use the pinky agree with Rabbi Akiva who said that each plague had five attributes – so the pinky is the fifth finger. While there is a basis for each of these statements it is our custom the follow the practice of Rabbi Akiva. There are other explanations for Rabbi Yosi, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiva’s rabbinic mathematics. Rabbi Yosi felt there had to be fifty plagues at the sea in order to free the Israelites from the forty nine levels of impurity into which they had fallen in Egypt. Rabbi Eliezer felt there had to be 240 plagues – forty in Egypt and 200 at the sea to repay the Egyptians for the bitterness of Israel’s oppression. In Hebrew letters bitterness is written mar, which equals 240. When reversed, the letters mem reish spell ram, exalted; through the plagues God’s presence was exalted above all the nations. And Rabbi Akiva believed that the plagues were the embodiment of the ‘finger of God (elohim).’ When we add up the gematriah of the full names of the letters of *elohim (aleph, lamed, hei, yud, mem ),*²⁴⁰ would be aleph – 111; lamed – 74; h’ei– 15; yud – 20; mem-40; this 300! Gematriah of course, is an art, not a science! it equals 250; together with the 50 plagues in Egypt, the number of plagues comes to 300, in agreement with Rabbi Akiva.

footnotes: ²³⁷ The source of this practice is the Rabbi Isaac Luria and the custom in the land of Israel. ²³⁸ Magen Avraham ²³⁹ Hanagot Minhagim ²⁴⁰ This is another form of gematriah calculations. A letter has its numerical value but it also has its value based on the name of the letter. Thus, an aleph can be 1 or it can be 111 by adding up the value of the letters in its name. Elohim