Maror ( mārōr) are the bitter eaten at the Passover Seder in keeping with the mitzvah "with bitter herbs they shall eat it." (Exodus 12:8). The Maror is one of the symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder plate.
Biblical source
In some listings of the 613 commandments, such as the commentary of
Joseph Babad on the
Sefer ha-Chinuch, the biblical obligation to consume
maror is included within the commandment to consume the meat of the sacrificial Passover sacrifice.
[ Minchat Chinuch 6:14 u'v'mitzvah]
Ever since the Paschal offering ceased to exist with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, the obligation to consume maror on the first night of Passover has been rabbinical in nature.
The only two biblical references to the maror are the verse quoted above (Exodus 12:8) and in Numbers 9:11: "they are to eat the lamb, together with the unleavened bread and bitter herbs".
The word derives from the Hebrew language word mar (מַר or מָרָה, "bitter"), and so may be related to the English word myrrh (through Aramaic ܡܪܝܪܐ mriro, cognate with Arabic language مرّ murr).
Symbolism
According to the
Haggadah, the traditional text which is recited at the Seder and which defines the Seder's form and customs, the
maror symbolizes the bitterness of slavery in
Ancient Egypt. The following verse from the
Torah underscores that symbolism: "And they embittered (
ve-yimareru וימררו) their lives with hard labor, with mortar and with bricks and with all manner of labor in the field; any labor that they made them do was with hard labor" (Exodus 1:14).
Use at the Seder
Maror is one of the foods placed on the Passover Seder Plate and there is a rabbinical requirement to eat
maror at the Seder.
Chazeret () is used for the requirement called
Korech, in which the
maror is eaten together with
Matzah. There are various customs about the kinds of
maror placed at each location.
During the Seder, each participant recites a specific blessing over the maror and eats it. It is first dipped into the charoset— a brown, pebbly mixture which symbolizes the mortar with which the bound bricks for the Egyptians. The excess charoset is then shaken off and the maror is eaten.
The halakha (Jewish law) prescribes the minimum amount of maror that should be eaten to fulfil the mitzvah (a kazayis or kezayit, literally meaning the volume of an olive) and the amount of time in which it should be consumed. To fulfil the obligation, the flavour of the maror must be unadulterated by cooking or preservatives, such as being soaked in vinegar.[ Mishna Pesachim 2:6]
Types of maror
The
Mishnah[ Pesahim 2:6] specifies five types of bitter herbs eaten on the night of Passover:
ḥazzeret (
lettuce),
ʿuleshīn (
endive/
chicory),
temakha,
ḥarḥavina (possibly
Melilotus, or
Eryngium creticum), and
maror (likely
Sonchus oleraceus, sowthistle). The most common vegetables currently used as bitter herbs are
horseradish and
romaine lettuce.
Hazzeret
Hazzeret is undoubtedly domestic lettuce.
[Thus explained in Rabbi Hai Gaon's Commentary on Mishnah Uktzin 1:2 3; Sefer Arukh, s.v. חזרת; Mishnah Commentary of Rabbi Nathan, President of the Academy, s.v. Mishnah Kila'im 1:2; Zohar Amar, Flora and Fauna in Maimonides' Teachings, Kefar Darom 2015, p. 77 Hebrew.] The word is cognate to other Near-Eastern terms for lettuce: the Talmud identifies
hazzeret as
hassa,
[ similar to the Akkadian hassu and the Arabic hash.
]
Modern varieties of lettuce are only slightly bitter or not at all, such as iceberg lettuce and romaine lettuce. However, in the past domestic lettuce was bitter, and Heirloom plant of lettuce that are bitter are still available to gardeners. Romaine lettuce is the most commonly used variety, perhaps because it still preserves a slight bitter taste. In addition, the Talmud remarks that Romaine lettuce is not initially bitter, but becomes so later on, which is symbolic of the experience of the Jews in Egypt.[Talmud, Pesachim 39a] The "later" bitterness of lettuce refers to fact that lettuce plants become bitter after they "bolt" (flower), a process which occurs naturally when days lengthen or temperatures rise.[ Why Lettuce Bolts and How to Stop It]
Wild or Lactuca serriola is listed in Tosefta as suitable for maror under the name חזרת הגל or חזרת גלין. However, its absence from the approved list in the Mishnah and Talmud indicate that it is not halakhically suitable.
ʿUlshin
The second species listed in the Mishnah is ʿulshin, which is a plural to refer to both wild and cultivated types[ of plants in the genus Cichorium.][Yehuda Felix, Mareos Hamishna. Source ] The term is cognate to other Near Eastern terms for endives, such as and Arabic 'ʿalath''.
Tamcha
The Talmud Yershalmi identified Hebrew tamcha with Greek γιγγίδιον gingídion, which has been positively identified via the illustration in the Vienna Dioscurides as the wild carrot Daucus gingidium.[The Jerusalem Talmud ( Pesahim 2:5 18a) calls the תמכה by the name גנגידין ( Gingidium), which, according to Dioscorides (Book II–167), is a kind of chervil, and can apply to any of the following genera: Chaerophyllum, Anthriscus, Chaetosciadium and Scandix. Of these, the most commonly grown chervil in Israel is Chaetosciadium trichospermum. Cf. William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Third edition, New York 1858, s.v. γιγγίδιον ("gingidium"), "a kind of chervil." Ibn Baytar, citing Galen, explains Gingidium as rather meaning a species of wild carrot (e.g. Daucus gingidium, or something similar). This view is accepted by Pliny the Elder who, in his Natural History (Book XX, ch. XVI), wrote: "In Syria very great pains are taken over kitchen-gardens; hence the Greek proverb: 'Syrians have plenty of vegetables.' They sow a vegetable called by some gingidion that is very like staphylinus (=parsnip; carrot), only it is slighter and more bitter, though its properties are the same. It is eaten, cooked or raw, with great advantage to the stomach, for it dries up all its humours, however deep these may lie."]
Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, in his Tosafot Yom-Tov, identified the Mishna's temakha with Yiddish chreyn (horseradish). This identification has long been recognized as problematic, as horseradish does not grow natively in Israel and was not available to Jews in the Mishnaic period.
Horseradish likely began to be used because leafy vegetables like lettuce did not grow in the northern climates Ashkenazi Jews had migrated to, and because some sources allow the use of any bitter substance (if so, the five species in the mishnah would only be illustrative examples).[Ari Z. Zivotofsky, What’s the Truth about ... Using Horseradish for Maror?]
Many Jews use horseradish condiment (a mixture of cooked horseradish, beetroot and sugar), though the Shulchan Aruch requires that maror be used as is, that is raw, and not cooked or mixed with salt, vinegar, sugar, lemon, or beets.[Orach Chaim 473:5]
Harhavina
The identity of harhavina is somewhat disputed.[El'ad Kapah, The Identification of the Mishna Plants According to Rabbi Nathan's Commentary of the Mishna, Ramat-Gan 2007, p. 48 (Hebrew); Zohar Amar, Flora and Fauna in Maimonides' Teachings, Kfar Darom 2015, pp. 88–89 . It is variously identified as a vine growing around palms, a type of thistle, or a type of acacia.] It may be Melilotus or Eryngium creticum.
Maror
The identity of this species was preserved among the Jews of Yemen as the plant Sonchus oleraceus, a relative of dandelion native to Israel.[Adin Steinsaltz, Talmud Bavli – explained, punctuated and translated", Pesachim, volume A, p. 276] The word "maror" is an autohyponym, referring both to this species specifically, and to any species suitable for use at the Seder.
