In the present age, eating maror fulfills a Rabbinic commandment. In this instance as well, one must eat a kezayis bichedei achilas p'ras. When it is difficult for a person to eat a full ounce of maror, he may rely on the more lenient opinions that consider a kezayis to be ¾ of an ounce. Similarly, in such circumstances, one may consider kedei achilas p'ras to be six or seven minutes. The romaine lettuce and the horseradish are both included in the measure of a kezayis. One does not recline while eating the maror.
The maror should be dipped in the charoses. Before that, some charoses should be placed into the plate beneath one's wine cup and softened with the wine that has overflowed. One should not dip the entire maror into the charoses, so that its bitter taste will not be neutralized. For the same reason, one should shake off the charoses.
The blessing al achilas maror should not be recited until the maror is dipped into the charoses, so that the mitzvah of eating the maror will follow it immediately. When reciting this blessing, one should bear in mind the maror of korech as well.
Blessed are You, G-d, our L-rd, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us concerning the eating of maror.
The Mitteler Rebbe added: "This applies in material things as well as in spiritual things. For a Jew, there is no division between the spiritual and the material."
(the Previous Rebbe)[243]
The matzah of the Alter Rebbe would serve as "the food of healing" in the most literal sense. One of his chassidim was a doctor in Riga. Each year, the Alter Rebbe would send him the remnants of the third matzah, the maror, and the karpas from his Seder plate, and the doctor would crush them together and use them as medication.
Once he was called to tend to a patient with serious heart and lung disorders. Seeing no other remedy, he gave him the Alter Rebbe's Pesach remnants. Miraculously, the patient recovered.
Another doctor who had cared for the patient was stunned by his recovery and asked the chassidic doctor his secret. With genuine humility, the chassidic doctor explained that the patient's recovery was not a result of his own wisdom and told his colleague the ingredients contained in the remedy he had administered.
The other doctor had connections with prominent government officials. When the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned for spreading Chassidus, this doctor offered a character reference.
One might ask: After eating matzah, the food of liberation, why is there a requirement to eat
maror, an experience of bitterness?
The answer is twofold: Firstly, in the present age, since the mission of refining the world's material substance has not been completed, our experience of matzah is limited. Even after the exodus from Egypt -- and in the personal sense, after every individual's exodus -- evil remains. Thus there is still the possibility of bondage and bitterness.
Moreover, even after the complete Redemption, when "I will cause the spirit of impurity to depart from the earth,"[245] we will still eat maror after matzah. For maror is associated with mercy,[246] and eating maror will evoke G-d's boundless mercies.
(the Rebbe Maharash)[247]
Notes:
- (Back to text) Sefer HaSichos 5702, ps. 94-95.
- (Back to text) Sefer HaSichos 5702, p. 91.
- (Back to text) Zachariah 13:2.
- (Back to text) See p. 11.
- (Back to text) Hemshech Mayim Rabbim 5636, p. 150.
Motzi Matzah -- Reciting the Blessing HaMotzi; Reciting the Blessing Al Achilas Matzah and Eating the Matzah