Search Library

Not Leaning Into Bitterness
Contributed by Michael Bernstein

  • TOP HAGGADAHS FOR 2023

One of Passover’s differences from all other nights is that we lean at the table.  There was a time when leaning was a particularly lavish way of having a meal, surrounded by servants or slaves feeding the guests as they reclined on their couches and ate their delicacies.  This kind of occasion in the Ancient world could be an opportunity to discuss matters of state and philosophy. And so the connection to the Greek word symposium, meaning to recline together.

Perhaps the seder was the Rabbi’s version of a symposium on the story of the Exodus and the meaning of freedom.  For a long time, however, the idea of leaning is more perfunctory, being particularly prescribed for certain moments in the seder, chiefly the drinking of wine and eating of matza and in some traditions the karpas as well.  Notably, however, the maror, another of the central foods of the celebration, is not eaten while leaning. 

At first glance, perhaps it is not surprising that we would not consume a  symbol of bitterness in a position of luxury and leisure. However, the counter argument could be made.  After all we lean as we eat matzah, the bread defined by the haste in which the Israelites ate on their last night as slaves.  Is it any more a contradiction to combine leisure and urgency? 

But the bitter herb is different.  We must eat it to make sure we know what slavery meant. To remember that it was more than just constriction and being controlled, but was a life made bitter by the cruelty of taskmasters and the denial of dignity.   We learn from the bitterness we face and that we recall facing. We respond to the great bitterness that many in the world feel. And we are, as human beings, drawn into the temptation of sinking into that bitterness. Not just swallowing maror, but allowing ourselves to be swallowed whole.

Instead, the Seder gives us the opportunity to partake of maror but not indulge in it.  Even as we lean into other aspects and lessons of slavery. we do not lean into being the bitterness of our past.

haggadah Section: Maror

Featured clips


More clips from Michael Bernstein