Bitter Herbs

Bitter herbs were one of the three prescribed elements of the Passover meal, alongside the roasted lamb and unleavened bread (Exodus 12:8; Numbers 9:11). The Hebrew term merorim simply means bitters or bitter things. The purpose of the bitter herbs was to recall the bitterness of the Israelites' slavery in Egypt (Exodus 1:14), making the Passover meal a liturgical re-enactment of the exodus experience. The Mishnah (Pesachim 2:6) identifies five plants that may be used: lettuce, chicory, pepperwort, snakeroot, and dandelion.

Botanically, the plants most likely used in biblical times were wild lettuces, chicory, bitter cresses, hawkweeds, and sow-thistles — all of which grow abundantly in the Sinai peninsula, Palestine, and Egypt. These plants are bitter to the taste in their raw state, particularly in spring. In modern Jewish Passover observance the bitter herbs (maror) remain one of the symbolic foods of the Seder plate. The ritual use of bitter herbs connects the act of eating with historical memory, embodying in bodily experience the suffering from which the LORD delivered Israel.