Rediscovering the Bitter Herbs

Jo Ann Gardner, garden writer and lecturer, is Neot Kedumim’s special consultant on biblical gardens in North America. If you have questions about establishing a biblical garden anywhere in North America, you may reach Jo Ann through American Friends of Neot Kedumim.

Eryngium creticum (Harhavina חרחבינה —in Hebrew)
One of the acceptable plants for the bitter herbs of the Passover Seder

Neot Kedumim's field work and research for the authentic identity of biblical plants has developed new insights into our history and traditions. Jo Ann Gardner has a particular interest in growing, using, studying, and writing about herbs. Her process of self-discovery as a Jew has led her to a study of herbal literature and to Neot Kedumim's published material about the bitter herbs of Passover.

Jo Ann was puzzled by the common Jewish practice of using horseradish as the "maror" or bitter herb, one of the central symbols of the Seder table. It was clear to her that horseradish was neither bitter (rather sharp) nor herb (rather a vegetable). Her inquiry from Jewish friends revealed mainly their distance from any botanical or agricultural realities related to Jewish history and tradition. Enter Neot Kedumim's publication of Nogah Hareuveni’s book, Nature in Our Biblical Heritage. From this she learned that the Mishna specified five varieties of herbs as acceptable for the Seder. Horseradish was conspicuous by its absence. The five specified herbs and their authentic translation by Dr. Ephraim Hareuveni into botanical terminology are:

Why then the widespread use of horseradish? Jo Ann could appreciate from her own experience and from her studies the importance in many cultures of fresh green herbs in early spring. She was aware that in her own climate and in northern Europe the five acceptable species were simply unavailable at Passover time. They were quite common, however, in the Mediterranean region. Furthermore, the development of these five species from welcome edible greens to inedible thorny growth later in the season drew comments from rabbinic sages about the symbolic parallel between the initial good life of the Hebrews in Egypt and their later enslavement (see Nature in Our Biblical Heritage, page 46).

Jo Ann’s persistent research revealed that rabbinical authorities in Germany as far back as the 14th Century had permitted the substitution of horseradish, available in northern climates, for the herbs specified in the Mishna. But this substitution was neither necessary nor practiced in regions where most Sephardic Jews lived. Among them, and of course in Israel , the use on the Seder table of some variety of lettuce (often romaine) has been consistent.