Imagine this: You’re an Israelite in ancient Egypt. It’s the night of the tenth plague, and soon you will be free. As instructed by Moses, you’ve painted your doorway with a lamb’s blood, roasted the lamb for dinner, and prepared some matzot to eat with it. But there’s one more thing on the menu: maror (bitter herbs).

Why marror? Well, according to the commentator Rashi, the marror is to remind us of how bitter our lives were in Egypt. OK. But, the first Passover seder was still in Egypt! Why would the Israelites need to be reminded of how bad their lives were then? And why do we continue to eat maror today?

This is what I’ll try to answer. To start, when thinking of marror, I am reminded of the slogan for Buckley’s Cough, Cold and Flu medicine: “It tastes awful. And it works.” Even though it tastes bad, the effects of the medicine are extremely efficient. There’s no sugar coating there.

Similarly, we can see that marror has to have some kind of positive reason for being on the seder plate, because G-d wouldn’t tell us to do something that was harmful. Even though it represents hardship, there must be a good reason to remember that.

To find this reason, let’s take a look at a current example of remembering Jewish struggle. The Holocaust had such a devastating effect on world Jewry that many people have a difficult time grappling with it. However, it is remembering those stories that is crucial to the survival of the Jewish people and the fight against erasing our history. We have struggled through thousands of years, but we have endured because, like the Holocaust, we never forget what happened to us back in Egypt.

You can see this concept exemplified on Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s day of remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terror. We make sure that no loss is forgotten and we honour them. Then, something strange happens. The next day, Israel lights up in celebration for its independence day. The order of those days is no coincidence. It tells the world, “Look how far we’ve come despite all that you throw at us!”

Likewise, Pesach is not just a celebration and it’s not just a somber memorial either.  As much as leaving Egypt was an occasion to celebrate, it was also bittersweet because many Israelites died earlier or stayed behind. Hence, maror is a tool to remind and educate us that in every generation we have faced and will face bitter times, but we will carry on. And what’s the best way to educate someone? With physical, tangible evidence. What’s the most Jewish way to teach this idea and connect to the past? With food, of course!

To end, going back to the beginning: Imagine you are about to leave Egypt and you know that your children, grandchildren and many generations later will face even more affliction. The maror you just ate reinforces that idea, that some struggle is inevitable. However, the generations after Egypt will, too, be freed from their suffering. And they, too, will be sitting around a seder table, telling our story and eating the maror.

So, take a bite of your lettuce, horseradish or whatever else you use, and savour it, because the bitterness won’t last forever. Chag Sameach.