Question: Should the goblet used for Havdalah be so filled that wine overflows? Additionally, is doing so not a violation of baal tashchit – deliberate wastefulness?
George Nevens
Via E-mail
Answer: The Rema (Orach Chayyim 296:1) records an ancient custom of actually pouring some of the wine from the Havdalah goblet onto the ground. This custom, says the Rema, takes place on Saturday night as a sign of a blessing for the coming week. But he cautions that one is not to pour from the goblet before the blessing in order that the goblet not be deficient. And the reason he offers for pouring the overflow is that “any home where wine is not poured like water lacks a sign of a blessing” (siman beracha) (see Eruvin 65a).
The Magen Avraham (Orach Chayyim 296:s.k.11) rules that the above-noted custom of pouring wine onto the ground is not a halachic practice and should not be observed, for it is a form of repudiating and disgracing the Havdalah blessing. He suggests that the proper custom is to fill the goblet to the brim so that it overflows onto the ground. Indeed, the Magen Avraham even contends that the entire custom noted by the Rema is an ex post facto one – a b’di’avad reaction rather than a mandate for an ab initio, or lechat’chila, procedure. Nowhere does it state that lechat’chila one should pour wine onto the ground. Rather, it states, that b’di’avad, should the wine be spilled, it is a siman beracha.
The Magen Avraham and the Taz (ad loc. as well) explain that this custom was basically set up so that people should not come to anger in the event that some wine does spill. People generally get very perturbed when someone spills wine, a costly commodity. In such an event, the halacha states that anger is a terrible sin; thus, the remedy is to refer to the Gemara in Eruvin that “any house wherein wine is spilled like water is a sign of a beracha.” Indeed, he notes that pouring a lot of wine over the brim is a form of wasteful destruction of food and drink. Accordingly, even the amount spilled over the rim of the cup should be minimal so as not to be guilty of such waste.
Shulchan Aruch HaRav (Orach Chayyim 296:s.k.5) negates your second question, as he explains that after the wine is drunk, some that is left in the goblet is spilled on the table [or a plate or coaster] in order to extinguish the flame. This is done to show that the kindling of the flame was only for the purpose of being able to make a blessing over the Havdalah candle.
The very fact that the wine is used as the means to extinguish the fire on the candle – when obviously some safe means must be employed to extinguish it, and blowing it out might cause a destructive fire – means that the spilling of the wine serves a purpose, and therefore is not baal tashchit.
Likewise, Ba’er Heitev (Orach Chayyim 296:s.k.3) says that to spill before the conclusion of the blessing constitutes a denigration of the goblet, but he cites Mateh Moshe who says that when one initially pours the wine into the goblet and allows it spill over its rim, if some spills onto the ground [or a plate], in that scenario there is no denigration of the goblet.
Mishneh Berurah seems to concur (Orach Chayyim 296:s.k.5), as he states that the later authorities conclude that one is not to spill the wine at the recital of the blessing, but rather at the initial pouring into the goblet. It should be filled to overflowing such that wine spills onto the ground, but even this waste should be minimized. Additionally, subsequent to drinking the wine, one is to pour from the wine to extinguish the flame.
To be continued.