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Maror is a bitter vegetable eaten at the Seder to commemorate the bitterness of enslavement. There are two vegetables that may be used for maror: lettuce (usually Romaine) and horseradish. Even though lettuce is less bitter, it is the preferred option because it reminds us of the enslavement: just as lettuce starts out soft and tasty but becomes increasingly bitter, so too the time of the Israelites in Egypt started out positively but became increasingly bitter. This is also what happens when we become enslaved to our physical desires. At first, we find pleasure in satisfying them, but if we continue to do so, we become addicted and enslaved to our desires, and our lives become bitter.
The maror is dipped in ĥaroset (section 5 above) to mitigate its bitterness. However, using large amounts of ĥaroset would defeat the point of eating maror. We recite the blessing: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His mitzvot and commanded us about eating maror.” We then eat a ke-zayit of maror. We do not recline while eating maror, since it commemorates slavery rather than freedom.
During Temple times, Hillel the Elder maintained there was a biblical command to eat the Paschal lamb together with matza and maror. To commemorate this, after we eat the maror on its own, we put together a matza sandwich (korekh) consisting of a ke-zayit of maror and a ke-zayit of matza, and dip either the maror or the entire sandwich in ĥaroset. (Since we may not offer sacrifices without the Temple, there is no meat in the sandwich.) We then recite the paragraph that starts “Zekher le-mikdash ke-Hillel,” and eat the sandwich while reclining.
