Why are there places on the Seder plate for the Bitter herbs, horseradish and Charoset? What is the distinction?
That’s a wonderful question. I often wondered why there were two places for horseradish (albeit they are given different names), and someone shared an explanation this very year to me which I believe makes a lot if sense.
Today, generally speaking, we have one Seder plate, no matter how many participants are present. The one who leads the Seder has the Seder plate in front of him and he distributes to every else seated around the table. However, originally, that was not the practice; instead everyone was seated at there own recliner-like chair. While everyone was located in the same room and next to each other, everyone had their own little “table”. You can almost imagine everyone having their own TV table next to their recliner. As such, everyone had their own Seder plate, with all the items we place on our Seder plate. The Seder plate contained everything each person would need to fulfill the obligations and commandments of the Seder: the Matzos, the Karpas (vegetable green), the horseradish, etc. Now, note that there are two times we consume horseradish during the Seder: during the Maror section of the Seder, and during the Korech portion (when we make the sandwich). As such, it is necessary to have two portions of horseradish, and that explains why the Seder plate contains two locations for the horseradish, so that the participant would have sufficient horseradish for both times in the Seder. The Seder plate, in effect was a self contained Seder kit, if you will. The charoset is present for the same reason: so that the participant would have the charoset necessary to dip the horseradish into.
Be well,
Rabbi Yoel Spotts