Horseradish versus romaine lettuce at the Seder table TB Pesakhim 39

Remember the mishna was memorized. To aid in the memorization, mishnayot were structured the same way. The mishna back on daf TB Pesakhim 35a list five kinds of grains that one can fulfill his obligation of matzah. The mishna at the very top of today’s daf TB Pesakhim lists five different vegetables that can fulfill the mitzvah of maror, the bitter herb.

“And these are the vegetables with which a person can fulfill his obligation to eat bitter herbs on Passover: One can fulfill his obligation with ḥazeret[1], with chervil [tamkha][2], and with field eryngo[3] [ḥarḥavina], and with endives[4] [olashin], and with maror. One fulfills his obligation with them whether they are fresh or whether they are dry. However, one does not fulfill his obligation if they are pickled in water or vinegar, nor if they are over-boiled [shaluk] in hot water, nor if they are boiled [mevushal].” (Sefaria. org translation)

The listing of grains used to make matzah is exhaustive. Only those five grains may be used to make matzah. The list of bitter vegetables is not limited to those mentioned in the Mishna because the fifth one, maror, comes to teach us that any bitter vegetable is permitted.

Of course, everybody knows why we eat bitter herbs. It’s based on the verse “(The Egyptians) made life bitter (וַיְמָרְר֨וּ אֶת־חַיֵּיהֶ֜ם) for them with harsh labor” (Exodus 1:14). The bitter herb was eaten in conjunction with the Paschal Lamb sacrifice and the matzah. Since we can no longer partake of the Passover sacrifice because the Temple no longer stands, the eating of the bitter herb is only a rabbinic decree.

Horseradish is nowhere to be found on today’s daf that speaks exclusively about maror! Why? The answer is simple. Horseradish isn’t bitter; it’s hot or sharp (חָרִיף). When and why did horseradish become “maror?” Elon Gilod writes:

“The earliest reference of horseradish being related to the festive meal as a bitter herb can be found in “Haggahot Maimuniyyot,” a commentary on Maimonides written by Meir HaKohen, a 13th-century German rabbinic scholar. But it is likely that this term was cited as part of an explanation later added by a copyist; none of the other scholars in HaKohen’s milieu mentions it.

Bottom of Form”It seems, then, that the first real reference to horseradish being consumed as the bitter herb during the seder is in “Sefer Ha'Aguddah,” by Rabbi Alexander Suslin HaKohen (d. 1349). In it, Suslin, one of the greatest Talmudic scholars of his day, writes that when lettuce is not obtainable it may be substituted with horseradish. Since lettuce grows in the spring, as one travels eastward and northward in Europe and the winters get colder and longer – lettuce becomes more and more difficult to come by on Passover, especially when it falls early do to the irregular nature of the Hebrew calendar.

“And indeed, during the late Middle Ages more and more Jews  were moving from Central Europe to Eastern Europe and had trouble finding lettuce on the holiday. As they moved east they gradually dropped the German word for horseradish and picked up the Slavic word chrein from their Russian and Polish neighbors – the Yiddish word for horseradish to this day.

“At first horseradish was only seen as a substitute for the preferred lettuce, but over time, as the tradition took hold, Ashkenazi Jews took to eating horseradish even when lettuce was available. To justify this practice, a number of rabbis identified the tamcha – the third in the list of five bitter herbs cited in the Mishnah (which we rendered here as cardoon, although the actual identity of the plant is uncertain and disputed) as horseradish. This association, however, is surely incorrect since horseradish didn’t even grow in the Middle East until recently.

“Over time, horseradish became so commonly accepted by Ashkenazi Jews as the traditional Passover bitter herb, that when they moved to Palestine and started growing it, they referred to it by using the ancient Hebrew word for lettuce, which appears first in the Mishnaic list of bitter herbs: hazeret. It then became the modern Hebrew word for horseradish as well, used to this very day.

“So, in a twist of fate, while Sephardic Jews have preserved the original Mishnaic bitter herb, they call it by its Aramaic name khasa, while Ashkenazi Jews use the original Hebrew word that appears in the Mishnah, but consume an altogether different vegetable: hazeret, horseradish. Unless they refer to it by the Yiddish word chrein, as my family does” https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/how-did-horseradish-become-passover-s-bitter-herb-1.5435093

Just as matzah symbolizes both slavery and freedom because it was the bread of affliction that Pharaoh fed the slaves and it was the first bread we ate as free people, maror symbolizes more than just the bitterness of slavery. It also symbolizes God’s compassion upon the Jewish people based on a word play. “What is the meaning of lettuce [ḥassa- חַסָּא ]? It refers to the fact that God has mercy [ḥas- חַס] on us” (Sefaria. org translation)

Concerning the battle between horseradish and romaine lettuce, the Gemara concludes that the best bitter herb of all is the romaine lettuce.

 

 

 

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[1] romaine lettuce

[2] Chervil is a delicate green spring herb that's perfect for salads and particularly delicious in omelets and other egg dishes. 

Taste

Chervil's taste is perhaps best described as a toned-down, fine and delicate version of a cross between tarragon and parsley with just a teeny tiny back-note hint of a bit of anise or mint, without either of those flavors really coming through at all. 

Appearance

Chervil looks like a slightly paler, more delicate, and more finely shaped flat-leaf parsley, but with frillier, thinner looking leaves. Sometimes bunches of chervil will have leaves that are quite tightly closed, almost flower-like. Avoid chervil with actual blossoms attached to it—that usually means the herb will have turned a bit bitter. https://www.thespruceeats.com/all-about-chervil-4114753

 

[3] The roots have been used as vegetables or sweetmeats. Young shoots and leaves are sometimes used as vegetables like asparagus. E. foetidum is used in parts of the Americas and Asia as a culinary herb. It is similar to coriander or cilantro, and is sometimes mistaken for it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eryngium

 

[4] Endive (/ˈɛndaɪv, -dɪv, ˈɑːndiːv/)^[1] is a leaf vegetable belonging to the genus Cichorium, which includes several similar, bitter, leafed vegetables. Species include Cichorium endivia (also called endive), Cichorium pumilum (also called wild endive), and Cichorium intybus (also called common chicory). Common chicory includes types such as radicchio, puntarelle, and Belgian endive. Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endive