It was the practice of Rabbi Hillel, at the time when the Temple stood in Jerusalem, to combine matzo and maror and eat them together. He did this to carry out the injunction concerning the Passover sacrifice: “they shall eat the paschal lamb with the matzo and maror together.”

Together they shall be: the matzo of freedom and the maror of slavery (and charoset), for in the time of freedom we there is knowledge of servitude and in times of bondage there is hope for redemption.

We remember our slavery and our liberation. But just as it was we, and not our ancestors only, who were liberated in Egypt, so it is we, and not our ancestors only, who live in slavery. Our slavery is not over and our liberation is not complete. The task of liberation is long and it is work we must do for ourselves.  What is the task of liberation?

The same Rabbi Hillel answers in three questions: If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us? If we are for ourselves only, what are we? And if not now, when?


haggadah Section: Koreich