Every Seder could use a little extra fun, especially toward the end as it runs into the later hours. This totally normal-looking kiddush cup is actually a precision engineered magic trick. Fill the cup as you would with any other Elijah's Cup and after a minute or so, you'll see he's drunk about a third of the wine in the cup. Why doesn't he drink more? The boring, scientific reason is hydrostatic equilibrium. But if your kids demand to know why Elijah left wine behind, tell them that there is no way he could drink a whole cup at every single Seder. Let's do a little math: There are currently about 16 million Jews in the world, with about 8 million residing in Israel and the rest mostly in the United States1. Roughly 75% of Jews will attend a Seder2. Let us posit that each Seder has an average of 15 Jews in attendance3. That means 12 million Seder attendees (16 million x 75%) and 800,000 Seders (12 million / 15) held on the first night of Pesach. If we assume the average kiddush cup holds 8 ounces, that equals 6.4 million ounces of wine poured into cups for Elijah. We will further estimate at 8% the average alcohol by volume for the wine poured into Elijah's cup4. That equals 512,000 ounces of alcohol. So, maybe cut the guy a break if he doesn't drain the cup to the last drop. --------------------- 1 Source: Wikipedia (don't judge) 2 Source: Jewish People Policy Institute 3 This is purely conjecture, but it takes into account Sedarim with several thousand attendees in places like Kathmandu and Bangkok. 4 This estimate may be low. We both know that whatever is left of that 13% cabernet is going to Elijah.
