To understand the original meaning of the Haroset, and its profound educational value, we will have to forget for a few moments the recipe of our own Haroset, and focus our attention on the three basic ingredients indicated by the Sages.
When Maimonides mentions the Haroset he says first that we prepare a paste with figs, dates, raisins or similar fruits. These soft fruits (or softened with cooking) are mushed, and then mixed with vinegar. And to this paste we then add the tebalín, or herbs.
Now that we know what the three ingredients of the Haroset are – fruits, vinegar and herbs – we will try to understand the reason of each one of them.
FRUITS, FOR THE TEXTURE OF MUD
Maimonides says (see text below) that the Haroset should remind us of the mud with which (or “in” which, as we shall see later) our fathers worked day and night, in the horrific Egyptian slavery. When you mush these fruits, part of that paste will surely remain in your hands. In a a similar way, the hands, feet and probably the entire body of the Hebrew slaves was never clean of mud. It always remain in their body. The fruits we use for the Haroset, dates, figs, etc. are soft and easy to mush, because the mission is to recreate a meal representing the mud (חרוסת זכר לטיט).
VINEGAR, FOR THE FLAVOR OF SLAVERY
The Sages also indicated that sourness should be perceived in the flavor of Haroset. That’s why in the original recipe vinegar, and not wine, is added to the Haroset. The sour taste of vinegar, obviously, is reminiscent of the bitter taste of our slavery, something that is explicitly mentioned in the Tora (וימררו את חייהם “And the Egyptians made the life of the Jewish slaves bitter…”. It is interesting to notice that originally, in the Talmud, the sweet taste of Haroset is not emphasized, although it is recognized as the expected flavor of a paste made from the mentioned fruits, which are sweet. Actually the rabbis emphasized that we should not be used too much Haroset to dip the Maror, the bitter herb, in it so that the sweetness of the Haroset does not neutralize its flavor.
HERBS (TEBALIN) FOR THE VISUAL MEMORIES OF SLAVERY
The least known ingredient of the Haroset is the one that Maimonides calls tebalin, that is, herbs. Herbs are generally used as aromatic additives or flavorings, sometimes they are mentioned as tablinín, spices. But in the specific case of the Haroset, Maimonides indicates that the herbs should not be ground or cut into small pieces, as is usually done when one uses spices for cooking. The best Kept secret of the Haroset is to introduce in it pieces of herbs that would resemble the “straw” (in Hebrew teben) that was used with the mud to produce there mud-bricks. The purpose of the tebalín, then, is not to add flavor or aroma to the Haroset, but to recreate a visual effect: “mud with straw” (טיט ותבן). The presence of the herbs / tebalin, is then essential to recreate the symbolic meaning of the Haroset. On this point the Talmud does not register any debate. To the extent that the Gemara in Pesahim relates (see text above) that when people came to the markets to shop for Pesah, the traders of Jerusalem announced: “Come and take (for free) the herbs to fulfill the mitzva [rabbinic commandment of Haroset]”
THE FUNCTION OF THE TEBALIN
Since the effect of these herbs must be visual, there is no specific indication as to what type of herbs or vegetables to be used. Some rabbis mentioned cinnamon, ginger, or hyssop twigs, but making it clear that they should not be powdered but cut into pieces. The Maharil (136-1427) was perhaps the most explicit, saying that herbs or spices should be cut into long, thin pieces (מחותכין ארוכין) to represent the “straw”.
Nowadays, for some reason (that I still ignore) almost all recipes of Haroset include ground spices an/or aromatic herbs and the visual effect that the Haroset must awake in our memory has fallen into oblivion. I will do my best to …
