Re: Meandering Jerri Type Post

Annie wrote:
> 
> "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


Maybe the long ago olives weren't as large as eggs, but long ago eggs 
were as small as olives? Over the centuries we've bred our livestock 
to produce bigger and better everything.

BTW, different olives from different places are different sizes.  I 
love the big green olives from the South of France, which are about an 
inch and a half long, but hubby prefers the smaller black Greek ones, 
which are just about an inch long.


-- 
Jette Goldie
jette@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
("reply to" is spamblocked - use the email addy in sig)