Hydroponic Lettuce - Marror

QUESTION: May hydroponically grown lettuce be used for the mitzvah of marror?

ANSWER: In the previous Halacha Yomis we noted that there is a dispute among poskim whether the beracha on hydroponic vegetables is shehakol or borei pri ha’adama. According to those poskim who maintain that the beracha on hydroponics is ha’adama, hydroponic lettuce may certainly be used for marror. What about according to those poskim who rule that the beracha on hydroponic lettuce is Shehakol. May it be used for marror? Yalkut Yosef (OC 473 – Maror) writes in the name of his father Rav Ovadya Yosef that although he ruled that the beracha is shehakol, nevertheless he maintained it may be used for marror. Rav Chanoch Padua (b. 1908) in his sefer Chaishev Ha’Eifod takes the same position. They explain that the beracha of shehakol is recited for hydroponic marror (according to those poskim) because it is inappropriate to recite “pri ha’adama” (produce of the land) on produce that did not grow in the ground. This consideration is relevant only to reciting the proper beracha. However, in terms of marror, hydroponic lettuce is the same entity as lettuce that grew in the ground and it is worthy of being used to fulfill the mitzvah of marror. Still, Rav Padua recommends not using hydroponic lettuce for the mitzvah, since it is something new for which we have no tradition.

Some have recommended against using hydroponic lettuce for marror because of a beracha issue. There is a halachic question whether marror requires a beracha or if it is covered by the Hamotzi of the matzah. To avoid this issue, we have the marror in mind when we recite the beracha on the karpas. If the karpas is ha’adama and the marror is shehakol, their berachos are not the same. Sefer Piskei Teshuvos (473, n. 89) writes that there is room to be lenient on this matter since the main opinion is that the Hamotzi covers the marror. 

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