[Avodah] Chrein

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, February 22, 2007 6:05 am, Yisrael Medad wrote:
:                                     We do, however, wrap [the chrein] up
: in Romaine lettuce, as is the EY custom.  Not quite a compromise but still,
: a comfortable coexistence.

Nothing involving eating fresh chrein makes the word "comfortable" come to mind.

My father used to do the same, but I think I succeeded in convincing him
otherwise.

My father follows the Brisker practice (probably via an RYBS Tues night shiur)
of dipping the maror into charoses in a way that no charoses stays on the
maror to interfere with tasting it.

Mima nafchach:
If chrein is not inferior, why break from minhag avos by introducing lettuce?
And if it is inferior, why is the powerful taste of chrein less of a problem
than charoses?

My own solution is to have two simultaneous sedarim -- textual and mimetic.

The big ke'arah in the middle of the table is al pi haAri. But I first take
from a small ke'arah near my seat arranged according to the Rama to avoid
problems with ein ma'avirin al hamitzvos. My koreich last year was first a
strip of soft matzah with romaine lettuce on it, rolled up -- karchah. Then, a
chrein sandwich between two cracker matzos. We quickly "daven through" the
hagadah, but also cover every point in the hagadah as a question-and-answer in
my children's first language. Etc..

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter