Note 33 — II. OUR DUTIES. (continued 2)

The Kiddush is part of the Sabbath or Festival evening meal, and in the absence of the latter the Kiddush is omitted.33 In Synagogues of the German and Polish Minhag the Reader recites the Kiddush at the conclusion of the Maarib Service. This custom is a survival of the ancient way of providing for the poor and the stranger. In the absence of better accommodation lodging and food were given to the needy in rooms adjoining the Synagogue, or even in the Synagogue itself. It was for these that the Reader recited the Kiddush, before they commenced the evening meal, as most probably wine was not served to all. Although circumstances have changed the mode of maintaining the poor, and the latter find no longer lodging and board in the Synagogue, the Kiddush has been retained as part of the Maarib Service, except on the first two nights of Passover, when there had never been an occasion for reading Kiddush in the Synagogue. The poor were treated on these nights with four cups of wine each, and they recited Kiddush by themselves as part of the Seder.