I have heard this bit every single Pesach of my life when my mother has been present. \u00a0And when she wasn’t, I’ve taken it upon myself to tell it myself (albeit a short short version). \u00a0All my stories are the short short version, in case you haven’t noticed. \u00a0Mrs Tzaddik is much better on detail. \u00a0So, to her, I am sure, I will not do this piece any justice at all.<\/p>\n
The tzaddik, surprisingly enough, was always right-up-to-the-minute with his Pesach parables. \u00a0He brought to our seder table the suffering of human populations \u00a0in the most tangible way, right out of the most recent New York Times articles of contemporary conflicts. \u00a0Pesach, for him, was a yearly reminder of the link between ancient and contemporary cruelties and oppressions. \u00a0And he would generate a lively discussion on the troubles of the world. \u00a0What I loved most was his compassion for Arab and Palestinian suffering that would frequently suffuse our Pesach discussions.<\/p>\n
For Mrs Tzaddik, it was always a bit more abstract. \u00a0Less the actual physical conflicts on the global stage, and more the larger, more elevated point.<\/p>\n
Maror<\/em> has always been without question Mrs Tzaddik’s favorite part of the Passover Seder imperative.<\/p>\n On the Sephardi seder plate there are some differences from the Ashkenazi offerings. \u00a0Our charoset for example, so puts that apple muck to shame that it deserves a post of it’s own.<\/p>\n But maror<\/em>. \u00a0This you wouldn’t expect. \u00a0It’s not just the what of Sephardi maror<\/em>, it’s the why of it.<\/p>\n Sephardim use lettuce as our ‘bitter herb.’<\/p>\n Sounds ridiculous, I know. \u00a0When there are all those wonderful Ashkenazi horseradish variations that could put hair on your chest. \u00a0But no. \u00a0We use lettuce. \u00a0But not just any lettuce. \u00a0It has to be Romaine. \u00a0And you have to chew it very very slowly. \u00a0Gobbling it down misses the larger lesson.<\/p>\n The Sephardim, says Mrs Tzaddik, teach a lesson the Ashkenazim do not know. \u00a0The Ashkenazim think that the bitter herbs represent the bitterness of forced hard labor \u2014 slavery \u2014 that the Jews withstood in Mitzrayim.<\/p>\n Well, that’s just crap, she says, using a quite different set of words to make her point. \u00a0And Ashkenazi maror<\/em> is really way too fast. \u00a0One taste, and you feel the bitterness of bondage.<\/p>\n Well, that’s not how it goes, she says.<\/p>\n Bondage is not bitter. \u00a0Bondage is very very sweet.<\/p>\n With bondage, all the hard work of making decisions for yourself are taken from you. \u00a0You can follow orders \u2014 and following orders is easy. \u00a0With following orders, you relinquish your responsibility to your task master. \u00a0It’s not your fault, whatever happens. \u00a0Bondage is easy.<\/p>\n More than this, she says, when first it starts, people don’t recognize the bitterness of their predicament. \u00a0Here’s where the Romaine comes into play. \u00a0When we first take a bite of Romaine it tastes sweet. \u00a0We think, this is great. \u00a0I can do this. \u00a0I even like it. \u00a0But if you stick with it, the longer you keep it in your mouth and keep chewing, the more bitter it gets. \u00a0If we find bondage bitter, this notion took a very long time to realize. \u00a0It’s a lot like marriage, in other words.<\/p>\n We think we’re okay. \u00a0Then something tastes a little off, but we ignore it. \u00a0In bondage, we don’t realize the terrible trap until very late in the game, if at all. \u00a0And then \u2014 and this is the point \u2014 it’s just easier to stay.<\/p>\n We swallow the Romaine. \u00a0We don’t spit it out.<\/p>\n No. \u00a0Says Mrs Tzaddik. \u00a0Maror<\/em> does not stand for the bitterness of bondage. \u00a0It stands for the bitterness of freedom.<\/p>\n Freedom is hard. \u00a0Freedom requires recognizing bondage and taking action. \u00a0 It requires a kind of bravery that is more rare in the world than you might think. \u00a0Taking action. \u00a0Making that decision to say enough is enough.<\/p>\n Think about Egypt today. \u00a0On this very Pesach. \u00a0It’s the Mitzrim themselves, and not the Hebrews, who are clamoring bravely for freedom \u00a0The Tunisians. \u00a0The Libyans. \u00a0Yemenis. \u00a0And on and on. \u00a0And it’s hard. \u00a0And it’s a terrible and dangerous sacrifice, this quest for freedom. \u00a0And like chewing that Romaine lettuce as maror<\/em>, it’s taken bloody forever to seek the road to freedom.<\/p>\n So. \u00a0Review.<\/p>\n Bondage. \u00a0We don’t even notice it. \u00a0And then, when we get a glimmer, we don’t do much about it. \u00a0Until, at long last, we taste just how bitter it really is. \u00a0And by then we’ve gotten used to it. \u00a0It’s just easier that way.<\/p>\n The really bitter part is freedom. \u00a0Freedom requires hard choices and courage. \u00a0It requires agency and activism. \u00a0A sense of rightness and righteousness. \u00a0Being able to put a name on exactly what’s wrong. \u00a0Knowing what’s needed and what’s in the best interests of all. \u00a0Freedom means more than rocking the boat \u2014 it requires tipping the boat over or jumping out and swimming to shore. \u00a0Freedom is recognizing an entirely new paradigm, a new vision. \u00a0And working to make it happen.<\/p>\n Exhausting. \u00a0I know.<\/p>\n All that in a bite of Romaine at the Sephardi Passover Seder. \u00a0 And that’s just the maror<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have heard this bit every single Pesach of my life when my mother has been present. \u00a0And when she wasn’t, I’ve taken it upon myself to tell it myself (albeit a short short version). \u00a0All my stories are the short short version, in case you haven’t noticed. \u00a0Mrs Tzaddik is much better on detail….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[250,216,222],"tags":[48,378,377,379,1020],"class_list":["post-2869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","category-kaddish-in-two-part-harmony","category-tzaddik-stories","tag-jewish-identity","tag-maror","tag-pesach","tag-sephardi","tag-tzaddik-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2870,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2869\/revisions\/2870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}