The Open Source Haggadah

Now take a kezayit (the volume of one olive) of the Maror, dip it into the Charoset -but then shake off the Kharoset that stuck to it, so that the bitter taste will not be neutralized. Recite the following blessing:

Blessed are You, L-rd, our G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us concerning the eating of Maror.
Now eat the Maror, without reclining.

HOST:
(Raises the bitter herb for all to see.)
On all other nights we can eat all kinds of herbs; why on this night do we eat only bitter herbs?

READER:
Moror is the bitter herb. It reminds us of the bitterness that our ancestors tasted in the time of their bondage. For the Torah says, "And they made their lives miserable with hard labor in the making of bricks and mortar." We therefore dip the bitter herbs into the Charoset, the symbol of bricks and mortar, to remember their hardships. As we recall the suffering of Egypt so do we relive the oppression of every generation. The taste of Charoset, like the taste of freedom, sweetens bitterness and suffering.

ALL:
May the bitter herb we are about to eat make us sense the pain and
cruelty and thus value the pleasure of love.

(All present take horseradish, dip it into the Charoset, and eat it.)

HOST:
On all other nights we usually don't dip food; why on this night do we twice dip our food?

READER:
Since we have already dipped and tasted the parsley and we now dip the bitter herb into the Charoset, we may ask we we dip twice? The first time we dipped parsley into salt, tasting the bitterness of tears and trying to erase that bitterness with the symbol of hope and spring. The second time we dip, we wipe out the bitterness of our slavery with the sweetness of hard work for good purpose as free people, and not as slaves. Therefore, the reason we dip twice is that it is not enough to hope for freedom, but we must work for freedom.

(All present eat sandwich of Matzoh, Charoset, Bitter Herb)

HOST:
On all other nights we eat either simply or in festivity; why on this night do we celebrate, in festivity at our ease, like wealthy men and women?

READER:
On Passover night we recline in the luxury of freedom. Our wealth is that we can feast in liberty, with our friends and family about us. We need to relive only symbolically the experience of the Exodus from Egypt. And yet, our sages and our history teach us that in every generation each Jew should strive to imagine that he or she actually was a slave, that we suffered persecution at the hand of Pharaoh, that we listened to the summons of Moses and went forth from bondage to freedom. Only then can we remember that while we feast in our freedom, others are held in bondage, hungering. Let us drink a toast to freedom.

The leader of the Seder dips the bitter herbs in haroseth, and says:

Bless you, Lord our God, ruler of the universe,
Who made us holy with your commandments, and bade us eat the bitter herb.

Baruch ata adonay eloheinu melech ha'olam
asher kidshanu bemitzvotav ve'tzivanu al achilat maror.


Share out and eat the bitter herb.