Bidspirit auction | “Kos Yeshuos Esa!” — The

“Kos Yeshuos Esa!” — The Havdalah Cup of the Satmar Rebbe ZT”L A Havdalah cup used by Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum ZT”L for Havdalah week after week on Motzaei Shabbos  during the 1960s . The Rebbe’s minhag was unmistakable. He would fill the cup until it overflowed, the wine spilling onto the table. After Borei Me’orei HaEish, he filled it again. After HaMavdil, he poured from the wine onto the Havdalah candle to extinguish it, and then passed his fingers over his eyes. As the niggun of HaMavdil filled the room, the crowd pressed forward to dip their fingers into the spilled wine — to take along shefa and brachah for the coming week. The cup is glass — in keeping with the Rebbe’s careful mesorah from his holy forebears to use specifically a glass cup for Havdalah. This minhag traces back to the Yismach Moshe ZT”L — al pi sod, not to use silver for Havdalah at the moment of parting from Shabbos. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • A Cup of Yeshuah — Segulah and Shemirah at Havdalah Chazal and the holy seforim speak at length about the koach of Havdalah over wine. Sons — “One who makes Havdalah over wine on Motzaei Shabbos merits sons.” (Shevuos 18b) Sons fit for hora’ah — “Sons worthy to pasken.” (ibid.) A share in Olam Haba — “One who makes Havdalah over wine…” (Pesachim 113b) Brachah rests upon his head — “One who makes Havdalah in tefillah and over a kos — brachos rest upon his head.” (Berachos 33a) Protection from calamity — The remnants of a mitzvah ward off misfortune (Tur 299 בשם Siddur Rav Amram). Called ‘kadosh’ — One who makes or hears Havdalah is called kadosh (Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer; Tur 296). A good siman for the week — Spilling from the Havdalah cup is a siman tov (Rema 296). Maaseh Rav — Yeshuos Through the Cups of Tzaddikim Healing — From the cup of Rabbi Meir of Premishlan ZT”L, wine was given to a gravely ill child — and within hours the child was healed (Roeh Yisrael p. 169). Reviving the dead — Rabbi Mordechai of Nesvizh ZT”L used a vessel from his Rebbe, Rabbi Yechiel Michel of Zlotchov ZT”L, to administer tea to a drowned child — and the child returned to life (Rishpei Eish p. 151). Reviving the Dead — A Maaseh Rav The heilige Rabbi Mordechai of Neshchiz ZT”L once married off an orphan boy and girl whom he had raised in his own home. In the midst of the simchah, a woman realized her young daughter was missing. After frantic searching, the child was found drowned in the mikveh. The broken mother brought the lifeless child to the Rebbe, crying bitterly. The Rebbe asked that everyone leave the room. He locked the door and prepared hot tea. In his possession was a special vessel he had received from his Rebbe, the heilige Rabbi Yechiel Michel of Zlotchov ZT”L. He instructed that the child’s mouth be opened and that a small amount of tea be poured in using that vessel. Immediately, the child’s spirit returned — and she walked home alive. The Rebbe later remarked that had he possessed his Rebbe’s table as well, he could have gone to the cemeteries and revived the dead. (Rishpei Eish, new edition, p. 151)