Q: Was 2020 a bitter year? | Passover haggadah by Serena Jake

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Matt Minnicino is a playwright [mostly]; an actor [frequently]; a teacher [when he can be]; a storyteller, always.

First, Two Epigraphs:

Dearest Artie:
It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another—it’s one damn thing over & over —there’s the rub—first you get sick—then you get sicker—then you get not quite so sick—then you get hardly sick at all—then you get a little sicker . . .

Edna St. Vincent Millay
Letter to Arthur Davison Ficke
October 24, 1930

Everything happens so much.

@Horse_ebooks
Twitter
June 28, 2012

Q: What makes an herb bitter?
A: In Pesachim, the Third Tractate of the Talmud’s Order of Festivals
The learned men have agreed on a few things that make an herb qualify as bitter

FOUR THINGS THAT QUALIFY AN HERB AS BITTER (#3 WILL SHOCK YOU!)
1. A bitter herb should be bitter
2. A bitter herb should be gray-green in appearance
3. A bitter herb should have sap
4. A bitter herb should come from the earth (not a tree)

Some good options are:
Horseradish
Celery
Romaine lettuce (but only the bitter parts)

But you must eat something sweet with it.
To balance it out

Q: Why do we eat something so bitter?
A: To remind us of the many Plights that happened
There have been, the learned men agree, many Plights
(at least three, maybe more)
Years that were all Plight, and nothing else.
Bitter Years.

Q: What makes a year bitter?
A: The learned men haven’t come to an agreement about this.

1. A bitter year should bleed when you cut into it
2. A bitter year should be the color of loss
3. A bitter year should be as long as it is short
4. A bitter year should come from the earth

Q: Why remember the bitterness of the past
When we have so much of our own

A1: Because maybe it is the same bitterness.

Maybe Bitterness observes the scientific rule proposed by Émilie du Châtelet
Maybe there is a Fixed Amount of Bitterness in the universe
And it can’t be created or destroyed
But only transformed
Or displaced from person to person
Place to place
Time to time

Maybe when the cosmos was created
The One Who Made It said
They can have a little Bitterness, as a treat

And we were stuck with it,
And now we eat horseradish because
There’s no way to end the Plight
So we can consume it little by little
Munch munch munch

A2: Or maybe it’s not that
Maybe it’s completely different.

Q: Was anything in 2020 sweet?
Anything?
Anything?
Anything?

A: [your answer]
No is acceptable
And so is Yes

Q: Can you tell me something good that happened?
A: You are alive, barely
And that means

Émilie du Châtelet
Who first proposed the Law of Conservation of Bitterness
Also said:

“It is the privilege of affection
To see a friend in all situations of his soul.”

The sweetness is
To see you in all your situations
And for you to see me
Come share a Plight with me
Come break Sadness with me into small crumbs and stalks
And make it easier to eat

You have some.
I’ll have some.

Q: Will there be more bitter years?
A: Yes

Q: Will there be sweet ones?
A: Yes

Q: Will they be the same years?
A: Yes

הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְּאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל, כָּל דִצְרִיךְ יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח. הָשַׁתָּא הָכָא, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּאַרְעָא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל. הָשַׁתָּא עַבְדֵי, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּנֵי חוֹרִין

Baruch Atah Ado-nai, Elo-heinu Melech Ha-olam, Asher Kid’shanu B’mitzvotav V’tzivanu Al Achilat Maror.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sancti- fied us with His laws and commanded us to eat bitter herbs.

haggadah Section: Maror

Source: Matt Minnicino