Et ce sont les verts avec lesquels on remplit son obligation (manger du maror - herbes amères) à Pessa'h: avec du chazereth (laitue), avec des endives, avec du tamcha [bast qui pousse autour du palmier], avec de la charchavina (lierre de palme), et avec du maror (herbe amère) [une sorte de coriandre particulièrement amère]. On remplit son obligation avec eux qu'ils soient humides ou secs [spécifiquement avec leur tige, comme indiqué ci-dessous. Mais avec les feuilles, (il remplit son obligation) uniquement avec des feuilles humides, mais pas avec des feuilles sèches.] Mais elles ne peuvent pas être conservées (dans du vinaigre), et elles ne peuvent pas être bouillies en pulpe, et elles peuvent ne pas être cuites. Et ils se combinent à une taille d'olive [pour l'accomplissement de l'obligation maror. Il en va de même pour les cinq espèces de céréales. Ils se combinent à une taille d'olive pour l'accomplissement de l'obligation de matsa. On parle des deux.] Et on remplit son obligation avec leurs tiges, et avec demai, et avec ma'aser rishon dont la terumah a été prise, et avec ma'aser sheni et hekdesh qui ont été rachetés.
Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
בחזרת – in Arabic CHASAH; L’ TU-GA in foreign language.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
Introduction
Since we learned in yesterday’s mishnah what grains one can use for matzah, today we learn what vegetables one can use for bitter herbs (marror).
As an aside, I will add a rare practical halakhic issue. Horseradish is not one of the vegetables on this list. Horseradish is not native to the land of Israel. It was introduced as “bitter herbs” in Europe where the herbs listed in the Mishnah did not grow, or were exceedingly difficult to cultivate. The most commonly used and acceptable “bitter herb” today is Romaine lettuce. Most people (I shall not name names, but some of them share my last name) complain to me that lettuce isn’t bitter so how can we use it for “bitter herbs”. They are correct through thousands of years of cultivation we have managed to take the bitter taste out of most lettuces. A potential solution which many people do is to mix some horseradish with their lettuce. In any case, I urge you to use lettuce on Pesah and not exclusively horseradish.
Finally, I am not a botanist. I don’t pretend to know exactly what most of these vegetables look or taste like. I have relied on Yehudah Felix’s article in the Encyclopedia Judaica and on Albeck’s commentary for my translation and interpretation.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
ובעולשים – in Arabic HANDA-BEE; and in the foreign language, AN-DEE-BEE. And in the Aruch, it is explained that it is a vegetable that in a foreign language is called KARSH-PEEL. (endives)
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
And these are the herbs with which one discharges his obligation on Pesah: with lettuce [hazaret]; with chicory [olshin]; with wild chicory [tamkah]; with picridium [harhavina], and with sonchus [maror]. Concerning all of these, Yehudah Felix (Encyclopedia Judaica, entry Bitter Herbs) writes: “The rabbis included under merorim plants whose common features are: “bitterness, possessing sap, with a grayish appearance” (Pes. 39a), meaning wild or cultivated vegetables, with leaves of a silvery-grayish-green color, that have a milk-like sap and leaves with a bitter taste.” In his commentary on Exodus 12:8, “They shall eat it roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs”, Nahum Sarna (JPS Commentary: Exodus, 55) writes, “Hebrew merorim (sing. maror) is a generic term and probably referred originally to the kind of pungent condiment with which pastoral nomads habitually season their meals of roasted flesh.”
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
ובתמכה – fibrous substance (i.e., bast of the palm-tree) that grows around the palm tree.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
They fulfill their obligation whether they are moist or dry, but not preserved [in vinegar], nor stewed nor boiled. The vegetables may be dry, but moist would be better. The Talmud says that only the stalks may be dry the leaves must be fresh. However, they cannot be cooked or preserved, which is usually considered to be akin to cooking.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
ובחרחבינא – (creeper on palm trees) – EL-KARTZ-EE-NAH in Arabic.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
And they combine to the size of an olive. On Pesah one must eat an olive’s worth of maror. The mishnah teaches that one can combine them to equal an olive’s worth, eating half an olive’s worth of one kind and half an olive’s worth of another.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
ובמרור – a species of coriander which is most bitter.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
And they fulfill their obligation with their stalk[s]. The leaves and stalks count toward fulfilling one’s obligation.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
בין לחים בין יבשים – and especially their stalks/stems – as we say at the end [of the Mishnah] that we fulfill [our religious obligation for bitter herbs] with them,, but leaves – moist, yes, but not drey.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Pesachim
And with demai, and with first tithe from which terumah has been separated, and second tithe and sacred property which have been redeemed. This is the same list as found in section two of yesterday’s mishnah. Notice that the mishnah does not even have to list those things with which one cannot fulfill one’s obligation, because they are the same as section four in yesterday’s mishnah.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
כבושים – in vinegar
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
שלוקים – cooked too much until they become dissolved.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
מבושלים – in the manner of cooking.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Pesachim
ומצטרפין לכזית – to fulfill the [religious] obligation of Maror/bitter herbs, and the same law applies with the five species of grain to fulfill the [religious] obligation of Matzah, and to both of them it applies.
