Siman 473, Se'if 4 · What is placed on the platter

Shulchan Aruch, Siman 473, se'if 4

"We bring before the master of the house a platter containing three matzos, and maror, and charoses, and karpas or another vegetable, and two cooked foods, one in memory of the Pesach offering and one in memory of the chagigah offering."

(Shulchan Aruch)

What is placed on the platter

• The three matzos: Their significance and their number were explained in the previous shiur, and here the Shulchan Aruch goes on to list the rest of the foods on the platter.
• The remaining foods: Maror, charoses, karpas or another vegetable, two cooked foods, and also vinegar or salt water in which the karpas is dipped.

The charoses and its function

"And charoses, in order to dip the maror in it, as will be explained later in this siman."

(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 19)

• The reason for the dipping: According to the Gemara there is a sap in the maror and a concern of danger, and dipping it in charoses tempers its sharpness and makes eating it easier.
• The charoses is not eaten together with the maror: One dips the maror in the charoses and then shakes it off, because the obligation is to eat maror, not to eat charoses.
• Charoses at korech: At korech, the custom is to eat the charoses itself as well.

The karpas

"And karpas, which is a type of vegetable called karpas, and one chooses this type in the first instance because it is a notarikon (an acronym) for 'samech perech.'"

(Mishnah Berurah)

• The name does not appear in the Mishnah or the Gemara: The Mishnah says simply that a vegetable is brought before him, and karpas is not mentioned at all. The name karpas is a custom that became fixed in the order of the night.
• The hint in the name: Karpas is a notarikon for "samech perech," that is, six hundred thousand who did backbreaking labor in Egypt.
• A principle in the seder platter: Some foods were chosen because of the symbolism in their name and not because of any halachic preference, and strictly speaking one may take any vegetable whose berachah is Borei pri ha'adamah.
• Other expositions: Some read it as "kar pas," and there are still other explanations of the name, but the exposition of "samech perech" is the best known of them.

The berachah of Borei pri ha'adamah on the karpas and the exemption of the maror

• The maror requires a berachah before it: The maror is eaten as a genuine act of eating, and just as before the matzah one says Hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz and then Al achilas matzah, so too it would have been fitting to say Borei pri ha'adamah before the maror and then Al achilas maror.
• The difficulty with a berachah on the maror: There is room to argue that eating maror is not an act of eating for pleasure but an act of distress, and on something one derives no pleasure from there is a view that no berachah is made. This point is somewhat forced.
• The solution: Therefore we say Borei pri ha'adamah on the karpas, which comes at the beginning of the seder (Kadesh, Urchatz, Karpas), and we have in mind that this berachah should cover the maror as well. That is why on the maror one later says only "Al achilas maror."
• The question of an interruption: Between the karpas and the maror there is a long interruption, including the recitation of most of the Haggadah and words of Torah in between. There is a difficulty here, and nevertheless this is how the poskim ruled.

"Or another vegetable, of whatever type it may be. But in the first instance it is good to take a type over which one says the same berachah that is said on the maror, for in this way he will cover the maror that he eats during the meal. But he should not take for this one of the five types of maror, for after he has filled his stomach with maror how can he afterward say the berachah Al achilas maror?"

(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 20)

• The practical conclusion: One should not take for karpas the same type he is eating for maror. Someone who eats lettuce or chazeres for maror should not take those for karpas, but rather another type whose berachah is Borei pri ha'adamah.

The amount of karpas and the after-berachah

• The question of Borei nefashos: One who says Borei pri ha'adamah on the vegetable and eats it should have to say an after-berachah, and yet we do not say Borei nefashos at the seder.
• The comparison to the wine: The very same question was raised regarding an after-berachah on the wine, and the answer given was that Birkas Hamazon covers it. Here too one can say that Birkas Hamazon covers the karpas.
• The doubt among the poskim: Some poskim are not certain that Birkas Hamazon covers the karpas, and in their view the comparison to the wine is not so simple.
• Less than a kezayis: Therefore some say to take less than a kezayis for karpas. The berachah beforehand is said on any amount, since it is forbidden to derive benefit from this world without a berachah, but the after-berachah applies only to an amount that counts as eating, which is a kezayis.
• In practice: In the first instance one should take less than a kezayis, and one who ate more has not committed a transgression, since Birkas Hamazon covers him.

(In actual practice, since the meal is still far off and those at the table are hungry, people eat a good deal of the potato and even eat a whole piece. One who does so is not transgressing, but in the first instance the amount is less than a kezayis.)

Which vegetable is used

• Identifying karpas: Some identify it with celery and some with parsley, and most of those who discuss it identify it with celery.
• The custom of potato: People use potato because it is convenient, tasty and readily available, not because it is karpas itself.
• Other types: One may take carrot, radish, onion and the like; the main thing is that its berachah is Borei pri ha'adamah.
• The dipping: One dips it in salt water and eats it.

Maror and chazeres on the platter

• Identifying the maror: The primary maror is lettuce, and therefore someone who uses lettuce for karpas ends up eating maror at the beginning of the seder, and that is precisely what the Mishnah Berurah ruled out.
• Lettuce and its bitterness: Some maintain that specifically romaine lettuce is suitable, some have the custom of using the stalk of the lettuce, and some add chazeres and horseradish to it because the lettuce leaves are sweet and not bitter. Each person follows his own understanding.
• Two places on the platter: On the platter it says both "maror" and "chazeres," because we eat maror twice: once as maror on its own and once at korech. Some have the custom of taking for the first maror what is marked "maror" and for korech what is marked "chazeres," though in fact chazeres is lettuce, and there is no requirement to have two different types.
• Two types of maror: Because the verse says "with matzos and bitter herbs they shall eat it" in the plural, some said that one needs two types of maror. The Mishnah lists five types of maror, among them ulshin, which some identify with horseradish and some with something else.
• The Yemenite custom: They use two genuinely different types, lettuce for maror and ulshin or horseradish for korech.
• Matzos is also plural: The verse says "with matzos" and not "with matzah," and here too we eat matzah for the mitzvah of eating matzah and an additional matzah at korech.

The vinegar or salt water and the reason for the dipping

• Their use: The karpas is dipped in vinegar or in salt water.

(The Mishnah Berurah there also deals with the law when Pesach falls on Shabbos, which is not our subject here.)

"Now, the matter of seasoning the vegetable with a liquid is an enactment of the Sages, in order to arouse the wonder of the children, who will see the change: that we eat vegetables with a dip, when it is not the way to eat them before the meal during the rest of the year, and they will ask about this change."

(Mishnah Berurah)

• The goal: "And you shall tell your son" obligates us to prompt the children to ask, as with the question "Why is this night different?" Therefore on this night we do something out of the ordinary, so that the children will wonder and ask.
• Two dippings: The text of "Mah Nishtanah" itself emphasizes that on this night we dip twice, whereas all year long we do not dip at all.

"And the recitation of the Haggadah, the mitzvah is to say it in the form of an answer to questions that were asked, as it says: 'When your son asks you... and you shall say to your son, we were slaves.'"

(Mishnah Berurah)

• The foundation of the Haggadah: The entire structure of the Haggadah is question and answer, and that is why we open the night with an act that prompts a question.

Two cooked foods: in memory of the Pesach and of the chagigah

"And the custom is to use meat and an egg."

(Shulchan Aruch)

• The meat: In memory of the korban Pesach that our forefathers ate on this night, as it says, "with matzos and bitter herbs they shall eat it."
• The egg: In memory of the korban chagigah. This is not a matter of great weight, and therefore an egg suffices and one does not need meat for both cooked foods.

What is the korban chagigah

• The offerings of the festival: One who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem would bring three offerings: the olas re'iyah, the shalmei chagigah and the shalmei simchah. So it was on each of the three festivals: on Pesach, on Shavuos and on Sukkos.
• The time of the festival: The festival itself is the fifteenth of Nisan, the day itself, and the festival offerings belong to it.
• The chagigah of the fourteenth: The chagigah on the platter is not the festival chagigah but a different offering, brought on the fourteenth of Nisan together with the korban Pesach, and it has its own name: the chagigah of the fourteenth.
• The distinction between Pesach and Chag HaMatzos: The korban Pesach is on the fourteenth of Nisan and is eaten on the night between the fourteenth and the fifteenth, while the festival begins on the fifteenth.
• Its source: The chagigah of the fourteenth is a rabbinic enactment and is not written explicitly in the Torah, although there are allusions to it.

The reason for the chagigah of the fourteenth

• The prohibition to be concerned about: Regarding the korban Pesach it says, "and you shall not break a bone in it," a Torah prohibition.
• The concern: A person who came up to Jerusalem and was occupied with the whole procedure of offering the Pesach had barely eaten all day until nightfall, and he is hungry. The Sages were concerned that he would fall upon the offering and in the process break a bone and transgress the prohibition.
• The solution: He should first bring a korban chagigah, from which it is permitted to break bones, eat some of it and fill his stomach, and afterward eat the Pesach in a normal manner.
• "Al hasova": What they said, that the korban Pesach is eaten when one is already satisfied, is this very same point, and the satiety is a result of the concern for breaking a bone, and not merely because it is unbecoming to fall upon the offering.

The zeroa and the law of eating it

"And the custom is that the meat should be a zeroa (a shankbone)."

(Shulchan Aruch)

"Zeroa, on account of the 'outstretched arm' that the Holy One, Blessed be He, displayed in Egypt. And one who does not have a zeroa should take other meat, but not a bone... for we require that there be meat on it, as it is a remembrance of the meat of the korban Pesach."

(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 27)

• The reason for the zeroa: Here too the food was chosen for the allusion in its name: the "outstretched arm" with which the Holy One, Blessed be He, redeemed us in Egypt, and not because the foreleg has any advantage over other cuts of meat.
• A bone alone is not enough: One who has no zeroa should take other meat, but not a bare bone, since one needs meat, which is the remembrance of the meat of the korban Pesach.
• The zeroa is not eaten that night: Since it is a remembrance of the korban Pesach, it is not eaten at the seder, so that it should not appear as though one is eating the korban Pesach outside of Jerusalem.
• The egg is eaten: With an egg there is no such concern, since there is no egg among the offerings and nobody confuses an egg with the meat of an offering, and therefore it may be eaten that night.

The reasons for the egg

"And the custom is to use meat and an egg. And all the more so, if one wishes to make two types of meat, one roasted and one cooked, in memory of the Pesach and the chagigah, that is perfectly fine; it is only that with an egg one already fulfills the obligation."

(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 23)

• The option of two meat items: One may make two cooked foods of meat, one roasted and one cooked, except that then he cannot eat them that night, whereas with an egg he fulfills the obligation easily.
• The hint of "beia": Some wrote that we use an egg because "egg" in Aramaic is "beia," a term of request and desire: "ba'a Rachmana lemifrak yasana," the Holy One, Blessed be He, desired to redeem us. Here again we look for a hint in the food to the theme of the night.
• A reminder of mourning: Others wrote that the egg is a reminder of the mourning over the Beis Hamikdash, since we are unable to bring the korban Pesach, and they expressed this through the food of mourners.
• The connection to Tishah B'Av: It is well known that the first day of Pesach falls on the same day of the week as Tishah B'Av of that year, and in this way the two days correspond to one another.
• "Yehudah has gone into exile because of affliction": And the kinah is expounded: "Yehudah has gone into exile because of oni," because they did not eat the bread of affliction (lechem oni) and did not bring the Pesach.

Arranging the platter so as not to pass over a mitzvah

"And he should arrange the platter before him in such a way that he does not need to pass over mitzvos; that is, the karpas should be above everything else and the vinegar next to it."

(Shulchan Aruch)

• The principle: The first item taken from the platter is the karpas. If the karpas is placed far away and the maror is right at hand, he ends up passing over a mitzvah and skipping what is closer to him. Therefore the platter is arranged according to the order of the actions.
• The details of the laws: There are various views as to what counts as passing over a mitzvah, and what the rule is when one item is on the right and one on the left, since the right is more significant than the left, and this is not the place to elaborate.
• The customs are many: There are some fifteen customs and even more for arranging the platter, including whether the foods are placed on the matzos, beside them, or with no connection to them. The most common in the Haggados are the arrangement of the Arizal or the arrangement of the Gra.
• The arrangement of the Arizal: According to the Arizal there are no questions here of passing over mitzvos, since the arrangement is determined by Kabbalah, each food corresponding to a sefirah.
• In practice: Each person follows the custom of his fathers and the way he was taught, and as it appears in his Haggadah.

Roasting the meat and a spit of pomegranate wood

"And the custom is that the meat should be roasted over coals."

(Shulchan Aruch)

• A spit of pomegranate wood: The Pesach was ideally roasted on a spit, and it is roasted only on a spit of pomegranate wood.
• The reason: Other woods release liquid when they are heated by fire, whereas pomegranate wood releases no liquid.
• The difference between roasting and cooking: Cooking is done by means of an intermediary liquid, water or wine and the like, while roasting is without any intermediary. When the wood releases liquid, part of the meat ends up being cooked in the liquid that came out of the branch and is not roasted.
• In practice: Since today we do not carry out all the details of the roasting as was done with the offering, there is no obligation to roast specifically over coals, and one may roast it over a gas flame as well.

In passing · customs and comments

• Eating the eggs at the start of the meal: Many have the custom of eating the eggs at the seder before beginning the meal, and it stems from the very same idea: the korban chagigah too was eaten before the korban Pesach.
• When Pesach falls on Shabbos: There are questions about this in the order of the night, and it is not our subject here.
• Names for the platter: Some call it a ke'arah, some call it a plate and some a basket, and in different countries it was called by different names.