מָרוֹר זֶה שֶׁאָנוּ אוֹכְלִים “The maror which we eat…” Let us examine why the sages chose hazeret²⁷⁸ חֲזֶרֶת (for the bitter herbs) over מָרוֹר maror. For Scripture commands us to eat maror with the Passover offering, and certainly if there was no herb found whose name is maror then it would have been good for us to use another, or something that causes the same results. Since there is an herb called maror, as theMishnah states, “And these are the vegetables with which a person can fulfill his obligation to eat bitter herbs on Passover: ḥazeret, chervil [tamkha], field eryngo [ḥarḥavina], endives [olashin], and maror,”²⁷⁹ why don’t we choose the one that is expressly called maror instead of ḥazeret (for the bitter herbs)? It may be that this is because the sages said, the mitzvah is with ḥazeret; because ḥazeret is also called חַסָּא hassa, lettuce, because God had compassion (ḥassa) upon us*.²⁸⁰ It is as if they were saying, “It is true that it would have been more appropriate to take maror since this is explicitly stated in the Torah. But since ḥazeret is also calledḥassa,* and the Holy One, had compassion, ḥassa, upon us and redeemed us, it is appropriate to eatḥazeret. But we still need to understand why this is the case and why it (ḥazeret) is what it is. Why is it that God had compassion upon us and yet we are still commanded to eat maror, and that the commandment came after the redemption? We shouldn't have had to exchange it with ḥazeret if the taste was not appropriate! It appears to say that the sages saw that the different types of herbs that are used for maror allude to the different exiles. Maror was an allusion to Egyptian exile and ḥazeret is an allusion to the present exile since we need to arouse God’s compassion to send a redeemer to redeem us.. That is why the sages said it is a mitzvah to use ḥazeret now. It could be that in each era they chose an herb that alluded to that exile. They were ordered as follows: Maror was for the Egyptian exile because they embittered our lives with hard labor. Ḥarḥavina alludes to the Babylonian exile because they destroyed our land and our Holy temple. Tamkha alluded to Media/Persian exile because the Holy One supported us and helped us in the rebuilding of the Temple. Or else it is because God supported us against the will of our enemies who sought to accuse us. Or it could refer to God’s support that we did not fall at the advice of Haman. Olashin refers to the exile by the Greeks who passed decrees against Israel so that they couldn’t study Torah. It is called olashin which is an abbreviation of Ol Shin, Shin from the wordshinun, learning, that is, they took from them the yoke of learning. Or it (olashin) may come from the expression שן סלעים shen selaim, a rocky crag²⁸¹ which means a strong hold because the whole world weighed down on them. Or it might be from the word , sone’, שונא hater or enemy, because we did not have an enemy who hated us as much as those who prevented us from studying Torah. חֲזֶרֶת, hazeret, refers to the present exile during which God will return us to our place as we originally were. Also חֲזֶרֶת, hazeret, is from the expressionhazir, boar/pig, “wild boars from the forest gnaw at it…” (Ps. 80:14) Why is it calledhazir? Because in the future God will return the kingdom to the one to whom it belongs, speedily in our days.

footnotes: ²⁷⁸ "A bitter vegetable, often romaine lettuce, placed on the seder plate" ²⁷⁹ Mishnah Pesachim 2:6 ²⁸⁰ BT Pesachim 39a ²⁸¹ See I Samuel 14:4 and Job 39:28 Also see Ramban on Deuteronomy 1:4 It literally means the tooth of the rock.