שבכל הלילות אין אנו מטבילין

Marror and Haroset

 

-         Arie Frohlich       

  

Every year, at Seder night, the youngest present asks the four questions. One of the questions is, “On all other nights we do not dip even once, [why do] tonight we dip twice?”  The question refers to the fact that we dip both the vegetable into salt water and the marror (bitter herbs) into haroset. The answer given is “we were slaves for Pharaoh in Egypt”.

It is written in the Mishnah (Pesachim 114a) that marror is a Mitzvah, while haroset is not.  Rabbi Eliezer son of Zadok is the only one who disagrees with this statement.  We conclude that marror is a Mitzvah, as we recite the Beracha “…upon the eating of marror” when one eats the marror.

The traditional answer as to why we eat and have the haroset on Seder night is that it commemorates the mortar used in the bricks that were made when our ancestors were slaves in Egypt. Another answer, given by Rabbi Levin in The Festivals in Halacha, is that the haroset kills “the toxins contained in the Chazeret (marror), or that the purpose is to kill the worms found in it.”

The Gemara in Masechet Pesachim replies that the dipping is “to interest small children.” Rabbi Donin expands this, saying that the dipping is “to arouse the curiosity of the children and encourage them to ask why it was done.” This would lead to the telling of the story of Passover, as it is written “and you should tell to your children.” (Devarim 6:7).

But what question can we derive from this? Is dipping such an unusal occurrence? Rabbi Donin explains, “the Sages instructed that it [the dipping] be done twice ( the marror in the charoset and the karpas in the salt water) on this night as to invite questioning by the children.”

But we still remain with a problem: according to the Gemara (Pesachim 120a), marror is not a mitzvah in our time, as marror was to be eaten along with the offering of Passover, which cannot be eaten in our times due to the absence of a Beit HaMikdash. R. Eizenberg answers that marror in our time is eaten to commemorate the Pasuk, “and their lives were made more bitter with hard work.”  (Shemot 1:14).

The mixture of the marror and haroset also had a reason.  Kitov explains that the two are a mixture of the bitter and the sweet; the bitter being the slavery in Egypt and the sweet being the anticipation of redemption.

Rabbi Zlotowitz helps us explain the explanation of the meaning of haroset here given by Rabbi Levin: “the haroset is itself a Mitzvah to commemorate ‘I roused Thee under the apple tree’ (Shir HaShirim 8:5).” The translation given here is the literal, as most English translations of the section translate it as: “under Sinai suspended above me, there I roused Your love.” He explains that the Midrash compares Mount Sinai to a tree as HaShem uprooted the mountain and suspended it above the Jews’ heads. Rabbi Zlotowitz continues to explain that the mountain was inflated like a balloon. The Hebrew word for ‘balloon’ is also the root for the Hebrew word for ‘apple’. The Midrash further explains that as Sinai gave its “fruit,” the Torah, in the month of Sivan, so does an apple tree give its fruit in the same month.

We have learned that the sweetness of the holiday is expressed through the sweetness of the haroset.  Nonetheless, we still have to keep in mind, as Eizenberg put it, the marror should not have so much haroset so as not to experience the marror’s bitterness.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Donin, Rabbi Hayim Halevy. To Be A Jew. United States of America: Basic Books, 1972.

Eizenberg, Yehuda. Month of Nissan: Laws, Reasons and Clues to the Mitzvot of the Night – The Book of Consciousness. Da’at Jewish Educational Centre. 28 Jan. 2003 <http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/toshba/maagal/nisan6.htm>.

Eizenberg, Yehuda. Month of Nissan: The Holiday of Passover. Da’at Jewish Educational Centre. 28 Jan. 2003 <http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/toshba/maagal/nisan4.htm>.

Kitov, Eliyahu. The Book of Our Heritage. Vol. 2. Jerusalem: Feldheim Publishers, 1997.

Levin, Rabbi Shlomo Yosef. The Festivals in Halachah. Ed. Uri Kaploun. Vol. 2. New York: Mesorah Publications Ltd., 1999.

“Song of Songs”, Ed. Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, Rabbi Nosson Scherman. Brooklyn: ArtScroll. Tanach.

“Tractate Pesachim”, Talmud.