Eating a sandwich of matzah and bitter herb |   koreich  | כּוֹרֵךְ

In the time of the second Temple in Jerusalem, the sage Hillel ate the matzah, maror and the Passover Sacrifice—Korban Pesach—together. This combination of tastes and flavors encompasses the full evolution from slavery to freedom. The maror is the bitterness of persecution. The matzah is the bread baked on the Israelites’ backs as they fled. The lamb is a symbol of their redemption.

Tonight, the korech sandwich represents the bitter and sweet that coexist in our world, and our responsibility to tip the scales toward sweetness, justice and redemption.

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When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the biggest ritual of them all was eating the lamb offered as the pesach or Passover sacrifice. The great sage Hillel would put the meat in a sandwich made of matzah, along with some of the bitter herbs. While we do not make sacrifices any more – and, in fact, some Jews have a custom of purposely avoiding lamb during the seder so that it is not mistaken as a sacrifice – we honor this custom by eating a sandwich of the remaining matzah and bitter herbs. Some people will also include charoset in the sandwich to remind us that God’s kindness helped relieve the bitterness of slavery.


haggadah Section: Koreich