Trajeron ante él [verduras, para que el niño lo note y pregunte al respecto (porque no era la práctica llevar verduras antes de la comida)]. Sumerge el chazereth [No necesariamente chazereth, porque esta primera inmersión fue con otros greens; pero si no había otros greens, en cambio, sumerge los chazereth. "Mojar" aquí significa "comer". (Dado que todo lo que comieron fue con inmersión, a la alimentación se le llamó "inmersión"). Esta inmersión, sin embargo, no fue un charoseth. (Se dice más adelante: "Trajeron ante él matzá, jazereth y charoseth" indica que aún no se había traído) "hasta que comiera el pan [es decir, comiera la matzah. Estamos aquí informados de que ninguna otra comida interviene entre el consumo de verduras y el consumo de matzá, que antes de llegar a esa persecución de mitzvá en la que bendice "al achilath maror", primero come matzá, como está escrito (Números 9:11): "Con matzoth y merorim (hierbas mordedores) lo comerán"—primero matzoth, luego merorim.] Trajeron ante él matzah, chazereth, charoseth [hecho de higos, avellanas, pistachos y almendras y una variedad de frutas. Colocarían manzanas en él, lo machacarían en un mortero, lo mezclarían con vinagre y le pondrían especias, caña de calamus y canela.—tiras largas y delgadas, en recuerdo de la paja (de Egipto). Y (el charoseth) debe ser espeso, en recuerdo de la cal (de Egipto)], y dos platos—a pesar de que el jaroseth no es una mitzvá [sino una ayuda para la salud, para neutralizar la acritud del chazereth, que está "tan adolorido como el veneno" para el cuerpo.] R. Eliezer b. Tzaddok dice: Es una mitzvá [en recuerdo de la manzana (huerto) donde darían a luz sin trabajo, y en recuerdo de la cal.] Y en (el tiempo de) el Templo, traerían ante él el Pesaj ( ofreciendo) en sí mismo.
Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
הביאו לפניו – the vegetables so that a young child will recognize them and ask, for it is was not the manner to bring vegetables [to the table] before the meal.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
Introduction
In this mishnah they begin to bring in front of him the food. We should note that the foods are brought in front of him before the discussion and recitations which we shall encounter in the following mishnayot. It is not entirely clear from the Mishnah itself whether they ate before the recitation of the “haggadah”, the ritual retelling of the story of the Exodus, or whether they first told the story and then ate, as we do today.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
מטבל בחזרת – not specifically lettuce, for this first dipping is with other vegetables, other than if he lacked other vegetables, he would dip with lettuce in place of other vegetables. And the language of “dipping” means eating, and because all of their eating was done by dipping, which is called eating by dipping. However, this dipping was not with lettuce, as it is taught further on [in our Mishnah] that they would bring before him unleavened bread and lettuce and Haroset, it follows that they had not yet been brought.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
They bring [it] in front of him. He dips lettuce before until he reaches the appetizer that precedes the bread. As did the previous mishnah, this mishnah continues to describe foods brought in front of him by a servant. Although many Jews probably could not afford servants, the mishnah relates to each Jew on the seder evening as if he is a member of the upper class. The mishnah does not say what “it” is that they bring in front of him. Some commentators add that it is vegetables and lettuce, while others say that it is a table. Whatever it is, it is clear that appetizers are served before the meal. Today we call this appetizer “karpas”, a Persian, Aramaic and Arabic word for celery. In mishnaic times they probably used lettuce as the appetizer. Other sources mention other appetizers as well. The mishnah may allude to this when it says “until he reaches the appetizer that precedes the bread.” The mishnah may be stating that he continues to eat appetizers until the final appetizer is brought. We should note how different this is from today’s custom, according to which a very small amount of a vegetable is eaten and then people can go hungry until the main meal is brought (and if they are at my seder they can shoot me mean looks as I go on and on).
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
עד שמגיע לפרפר את הפת – to the eating of the unleavened bread. And this comes to inform us that no other eating interrupts between the eating of the vegetables and the eating of the unleavened bread. For before that he would arrive to that lettuce which was commanded, upon which he recites the blessing “on the eating of bitter herbs,” he eats unleavened bread first, as it is written (Numbers 9:11): “They [shall eat it] with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.” Matzot/unleavened bread first and afterwards bitter herbs/Maror.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
They bring before him matzah, lettuce, and haroset (and two though the haroset is not mandatory. Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Zadok says: it is mandatory. After the appetizers are completed, the servants bring in front of him the main festival foods, the matzah, lettuce and haroset. The matzah is explicitly commanded by the Torah. The lettuce is the bitter herbs (see abover 2:6) also mandated by the Torah. Haroset does not appear in the Torah. Haroset, a mixture of wine and fruit or wine-vinegar and fruit, was a common food in the Greco-Roman world. It was probably added to the Pesah meal after the destruction in an attempt to provide more foods for the seder. In the Talmud it is explained as having different symbolic meanings, most familiarly that it represents the mortar used to make the bricks in Egypt. Others say that it should have a sharp flavor to remind us of the slavery in Egypt. Still others say that the apples used in making it are to remind us of the “apple” in Egypt, a symbol of the fertility of the Israelite women. According to the first opinion, haroset is brought to the table but it is not mandatory. Rabbi Elazar bar Zadok says that it is mandatory.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
וחרוסת – which we make from figs, and nuts, peanuts and almonds and several kinds of fruits and we place in it apples and we clean them with a mortar and mix them in vinegar and put spices, reed stalks, cinnamon, like thin, long wicks, in memory of the straw (used by the Israelite slaves to build the treasure-cities for the Pharaoh) and it needs to be thick, in memory of the plaster.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
And in the Temple they bring the body of the pesah before him. The mishnah notes that in Temple days at this point they would bring the pesah in front of the seder participant. Note that the main part of the mishnah describes the seder as it existed after the Temple was destroyed. Only at the end does the mishnah note when the pesah was eaten during Temple times.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
שאין חרוסת מצוה – but rather for medicinal purposes to nullify the burning of the lettuce which is bad and hard on the body like poison.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
ר"א ברבי צדוק אומר מצוה – in memory of the apple that women would give birth to their sons there (i.e., in Egypt) without pain, and in memory of the plaster.
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Rambam on Mishnah Pesachim
Charoset is mixture which has acidity in it and something similar to straw, and this is memory of the mortar. And we make it like this: Soak figs or dates and cook them and pound them until they are wet and knead them with spikenard or hyssop or something similar, without grinding them. And Rabbi Eliezer said that charoset is a mitzvah and in his opinion, one would need to say a blessing "who has commanded about eating charoset" and that is not the halakha.
