Skipping Maror?

I recently posted a critique of some Matza / Maror / Korech practices as found in a recently published Haggadah, especially as those practices build on one another. See Shutting Up Until Korech.

While checking up on some sources for that post, I noticed some manuscript variants of the central gemara at play regarding Korech, that aligned well with an argument I put forth in the past, thus giving that argument further strength. Thus, this post.

To greatly simplify the ideas in Pesachim 115a, and ignoring / flattening Amoraic dispute in the matter (involving Ravina, Rav Mesharshiya b. Rav Natan [really Chanan], and Rabbi Yochanan), there is a verse עַל מַצּוֹת וּמְרוֹרִים יֹאכְלוּהוּ, “they shall eat it [the korban Pesach] upon matzot and bitter herbs”. This forms the basis of Hillel’s sandwich. Maybe it could also be read as saying that nowadays, even in the absence of the korban Pesach, the matzot should be eaten together with maror. And there is a dispute between Hillel and the Sages about whether to eat them together. Associated with this dispute is whether mitzvot can nullify one another. (See Zevachim 79a.) Here, the taste or volume of one might nullify the other. And maybe they only won’t nullify one another if one they are on the same level — a Biblical mitvah won’t nullify a Biblical mitzvah. Here, maror nowadays is Rabbinic while matzah is Biblical. (See dispute on Pesachim 120.) So the maror might nullify the matzah. The gemara concludes:

הַשְׁתָּא דְּלָא אִיתְּמַר הִלְכְתָא לָא כְּהִלֵּל וְלָא כְּרַבָּנַן, מְבָרֵךְ ״עַל אֲכִילַת מַצָּה״ וְאָכֵיל, וַהֲדַר מְבָרֵךְ ״עַל אֲכִילַת מָרוֹר״ וְאָכֵיל, וַהֲדַר אָכֵיל מַצָּה וְחַסָּא בַּהֲדֵי הֲדָדֵי בְּלֹא בְּרָכָה זֵכֶר לַמִּקְדָּשׁ, כְּהִלֵּל.

The Gemara comments: Now that the halakha was stated neither in accordance with the opinion of Hillel nor in accordance with the opinion of the Rabbis, one recites the blessing: Commanded us over eating matza, and eats matza to fulfill his obligation. And then he recites the blessing: Commanded us over eating bitter herbs, and eats the lettuce as bitter herbs. And then he eats matza and lettuce together without a blessing in remembrance of the Temple, in the manner of Hillel in the days of the Temple, who ate matza and bitter herbs together with the Paschal lamb.

The idea being that by first eating matzah alone, we have fulfilled the Biblical obligation. Then, we eat maror alone, fulfilling the Rabbinic obligation. Finally, we wrap matzah and maror and eat them together, without a blessing — our Korech.

What bothered me it that it seemed this was an unnecessary step. After all, once we eat matzah by itself, reducing further consumption to rabbinic level, why do we need to have an independent maror. We should just do Korech at that point as a way of fulfilling Maror, since a rabbinic mitzvah won’t nullify a rabbinic mitzvah!

(The answer might be that, once we’ve eaten it, it reduces further consumption of matzah not to rabbinic but merely to minhag, or even lack of any obligation whatsoever, so that the minhag would nullify the rabbinic. Alternatively, according to Rav Acha bar Yaakov on Pesachim 120, the maror is Biblical, so we can worry about the matzah nullifying the maror.)

However, now I see that some manuscripts differ, and might support skipping the middle element of maror. Let us explore.