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[4] Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik claimed (Harerei Kedem, II:93) that even if Hillel combined only matza and maror, that is the way one is to eat the Pesach sacrifice (“unleavened cakes, with bitter herbs they shall eat it”), and therefore, where there is no Pesach sacrifice there is no meaning to the korekh as such, and it is only meant as a remembrance of the Temple practice. One can also add that that in any event, since the person has eaten an ke-zayit of matza by itself, the combining has lost its significance for another reason, because the commandment might be specifically to combine the matza and the maror, and as the person has already fulfilled the commandment of matza, there is no reason to combine the maror specifically with “the taste of matza” unrelated to the fulfillment of the commandment.
[5] It is true that the main prohibition against talking is between the blessing over maror and the korekh, whereas there is technically no prohibition to speak between the matza and maror blessings.
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[6] Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik (brought in Harerei Kedem, II:93) added that as the korekh is not the fulfillment of the commandment of maror but is only a remembrance of the Temple practice, one can say that it has nothing to do with the blessings of matza and maror, but is an independent display of “there is none to seek Zion,” i.e., the remembrance of the Temple, and thus there is no problem whatsoever in interrupting oneself by speaking before korekh. He adds, however, that in practice Rav Chaim of Brisk made a point of not interrupting by speaking until after eating the afikoman (in accordance with the view of the Shela), because the afikoman is part of the commandment of matza, “so that one should remain with the taste of matza in his mouth.”
[7] See also Chazon Ovadya, I:41, that this is the view of the Acharonim, and that is the custom.
[8] There are those who are of the opinion that the maror is to be placed on the matza, for the Gemara states that “he wraps matza and maror,” and not “he wraps the matza with maror,” or “he wraps the maror with matza” (Haggadat Teiman im Peirush Eitz Chaim; Haggadat Mo’adim u-Zemanim, p. 107).
By Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon Translated by Rabbi Dr. Shmuel Himelstein
Originally published at Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash.
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