Re: Meandering Jerri Type Post

"Mordechai T. Abzug"  wrote ...
> IIRC, you are not actually required to eat any horseradish.  Romaine
> lettuce is at least as valid as horseradish.  You can eat romaine
> lettuce for some or all of the maror volume required, which IIRC is a
> k'zayis[1] for each of maror and ko'raych.  Eating horseradish
> specifically is a macho custom, but not required.  It should be better
> to eat the proper volume of romaine than a below-minimum volume of
> horseradish.  If in doubt (and don't take my word, I'm no longer
> practicing), ask a competent local rabbi.
>
> - Morty
>
> [1] k'zayis -- literally "like an olive."  Traditional measure of
> volume, somewhat larger than a typical supermarket olive.  Rabbinical
> authorities differ on the precise modern volume equivalent.

Our minhag is to eat the chrain inside the romaine lettuce during moror
and 
then again with matzoh during koraich. Some people add the horseradish
root 
to the chrain inside the romaine (not me). Women aren't excused from any
of 
the rituals involved, we even say kiddush together instead of just
listening 
to the baal habais...just at the seder, btw, not Shabbos or other
holidays.

Some time ago someone (some Rabbinical authority, I'm gonna assume) 
determined that the k'zayis is supposed to be the volume of an egg as 
opposed to an olive and their/his reasoning was that back in the day the 
olives were considerably larger than they are now. Just recently someone 
wrote an article claiming that in fact those long ago olives really
weren't 
as large as they were thought to be but there are people who dispute that 
theory...not that this would surprise you, after all, put 4 Rabbinical 
authorities in one room and you get 10 opinions.

Annie