2021/5781
As the famous song goes: “On Pesach, we celebrate with Matzah and Maror on the Seder plate, Ma Nishtana, four cups of wine, we eat the Afikoman and we all recline.” One may argue, one of the most memorable moments of the Seder is the eating of the Maror: seeing the faces of family members gradually growing red from all the Chazeret piled onto the already semi-bitter piece of Romain. To quote my classmate Elisha Markovitz, “Maror is less than yummy.” However, what this obligation of Maror comes to represent is often overlooked.
As pointed out by my Rebbe, Rabbi Chaim Jachter, throughout Torah life, in order to truly grasp Torah and Torah life more deeply, we must learn to extract golden apples from their silver mesh: “Tapuchei Zahav BeMashkiot Kasef” (Mishlei 25:11). From the time we were little children learning about the holiday of Pesach for the first time, we all have heard the Drasha that the Maror, due to its bitterness, is supposed to remind us of the bitter slavery Bnei Yisrael experienced in Mitzrayim. This Drasha would constitute the silver mesh. In what other way can we understand the message of Maror to constitute the golden apple? One way of truly grasping at this golden apple would be to say that Maror may actually represent Cheirut after all. Maror is defined by Rashi as “Kol Esev Mar Nikrah Maror Vetzivam Le’echol Mar Zecher LeVayemareru Et Chayeihem,” “Every bitter herb is called Maror. He commanded them to eat something bitter as a reminder of ‘And they made their lives bitter.’” (Shemot 12:8, Rashi s.v. UMatzot Al Merorim). Rashi is clearly highlighting that Maror is, in essence, defined by anything intensely bitter. In fact, the Arizal mentions that the word “Maror” has the same gematria as that of “Mavet” (death). This parallel between the two is exactly what leads to the Geula.
Why were we only in mitzrayim for 210 years? The answer lies in the fact that it was so bad for those 210 years that it was like those 400 years of suffering were condensed into a time of 210 years. Therefore, the sense of bitterness of mitzrayim was not only integral to slavery but also to the Geula. The Geula happened so much earlier because of this condensation. Rav Matisyahu Salomon notes that when we talk about Maror we focus on Avodah, or work. We even mention it four times in the small paragraph on Maror. He notes that the word Avodah is connected to Avodat Hashem. The Avodah of the Maror was so intense and its extremely bitter nature actually prepared us to have an easier time connecting and doing well with our Avodat Hashem: all the blood sweat and tears for Avodat Hashem. So, Maror really represents our growth from Avodah to Avodah - the Avodah in Mitzrayim to our Avodat Hashem.