As for the bitter herbs.... To see everyone with tears coursing down their faces, laughing and gasping at the same time, is fun and also makes the point — bitter herbs must be really bitter to experience the suffering...

Neuberger is reflecting on the Passover Seder ritual of eating maror (bitter herbs) to recall the Israelites’ suffering in Egypt. She notes the paradoxical, communal moment when participants react viscerally—tears, coughing, laughter—because the bitterness is physically intense. That shared discomfort becomes a kind of embodied teaching: the ritual is not meant to be merely symbolic or tasteful, but to provoke a real sensation that anchors memory and empathy. The line also hints at how religious practice can use sensory experience and even humor to transmit serious historical meaning, turning a fleeting bodily reaction into a lesson about oppression and remembrance.