In creating a holiday about the joy of freedom, we turn the story of our bitter history into a sweet celebration. We recognize this by dipping our bitter herbs into the sweet charoset. We don’t totally eradicate the taste of the bitter with the taste of the sweet… but doesn’t the sweet mean more when it’s layered over the bitterness?

Our struggles are what define us, and without the low points in life, the high points cannot exist. 

Kendrick Lamar tells the story of how he broke free from the gangster mentality he was raised with. He found inspiration in the very walls that confined him, and once he finally broke free he was an empowered person who had many stories to tell. 

"If these walls could talk they’d tell me to go deep
Yelling at me continuously I can see
Your defense mechanism is my decision
Knock these walls down that’s my religion
Walls feeling like they ready to close in
I suffocate then catch my second wind
I resonate in these walls
I don’t know how long I can wait in these walls
I’ve been on these streets too long looking at you from the outside in
They sing the same old song about how they walls are always the cleanest
I beg to differ, I must’ve missed them
I’m not involved I’d rather diss them
I’d rather call all you put your wall up
Cause when I come around demolition gon’ crush"

-Kendrick Lamar, These Walls 

ברוּךְ אַתָּה יְיַָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּֽנוּ עַל אֲכִילַת מרוֹר:

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al achilat maror.

We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who made us holy through obligations, commanding us to eat bitter herbs.


haggadah Section: Maror