We usually go to the synagogue to read stories of our past and to pray on festivals, but on Passover most families read the Hagadah at home together. If Passover is a holiday celebrating us leaving Egypt, why when we discuss the exodus must we eat bitter herbs that don’t taste good? Shouldn’t we be eating a feast with meat and other delicacies if we are celebrating a major event in our history? The reason we don’t feast yet is because we are not celebrating exodus from Egypt; we are remembering it. The exodus was not a pleasant thing so we eat bitter herbs and matzah in order to feel and remember the tough times we were going through. This is based on the principle if you want to properly remember something you must perform some action that has to do with what you are trying to remember. SO if you are remembering good things you feast because that is a good thing, but if you are remembering something bad you must do something to feel bad. In this case we are eating bitter herbs in order to feel and remember the bad. Only later in the seder, when we've moved from remembering slavery to celebrating freedom, do we enjoy a feast.



haggadah Section: -- Four Questions
Source: Original