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THE MEANING OF MAROR & JEWISH LIFE IN NEW YORK BY R A B B I R OY F E L D M A N
Most people think they know why we eat Maror on Passover. Rabban Gamliel himself tells us in the Haggadah: “What does this bitter herb mean? It is eaten because the Egyptians embittered the lives of our ancestors.”
of suffering. The first is the primary, raw experience, which he designated as Fate. He wrote in Kol Dodi Dofek, “Evil is a fact that cannot be denied. There is evil in the world. There are suffering and agony, and death pangs. He who would deceive himself...by romanticizing life is but a fool and fabricator of illusions.” Judaism neither ignores our suffering and pain nor pretends they do not exist. We do not know the “reason” why people suffer: we just know we have suffered and will again in the future; such is our fate. The Rav called the second dimension
What should the sufferer do to live with his suffering? … What does suffering obligate man to do?’” No one denies the truth and deep struggle and pain of suffering. But Judaism’s primary questions are the ethical ones: What shall we do with this suffering, now that we have experienced it? Egyptian slavery was a great evil; following it, our ancestors used its experiences to establish our nation, our relationship with God, and inspire our ethical treatment of strangers. The destruction of the Temple and subsequent exile were catastrophic, but
In the Bible, however, bitter herbs are mentioned only in the context of eating them with the Paschal sacrifice (roast lamb) on Matzah. Literally on the eve of the exodus, this surely had nothing to do with commemorating Egyptian bondage. The Ohr Hachayim observed that there is a much simpler explanation for the Maror requirement: it tastes better that way. The Paschal sacrifice, eaten on Matzah with bitter herbs, is meant to be enjoyed, and “it is common for people to eat roast meat with something sharp as this enhances the taste of the meat and enables one to thoroughly enjoy it.” According to this, bitter herbs on the Korban Pesach are analogous to our mustard on pastrami or hot sauce on shawarma. These two rationales for eating Maror are antithetical to each other: According to our Haggadah, we eat Maror because it tastes bitter. According to Ohr Hachayim, we eat Maror because it makes the food taste better—not bitter! Which is it? Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik distinguished between two aspects
The Birds’ Head Haggadah, circa 1300. Israel Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
of our experience of suffering, Destiny. “When the ‘Child of Destiny’ suffers, he says in his heart, ‘There is evil, I do not deny it...I ask a single question:
R abbi R oy F eldman / / K E H I L AT H J E S H U R U N B U L L E T I N
the rabbinic sages used the experience to develop religious practices and Torah study which have kept our people strong and together for close to
R abbi R oy F eldman
