It’s chilly outside and many of us are looking forward to the coming of spring. While it might feel too early to think about Passover, this week’s Torah portion includes instructions for eating the Passover meal; which of course includes eating unleavened bread—matzot. With thanks to scholars Dr. William Propp (UCSD, retired) and Rabbi Dr. Zev Faber (TheTorah.Com), Rabbi Jaech explored the Passover meal and why eating matzot is an integral part of the festival.
In many of our Passover haggadot, we are told to recline while we consume our Passover meal. That is because the seder is modeled on the Roman symposium—a banquet where people reclined on pillows while they ate, drank, sang, and conversed. But the meal as described in the Torah is a meal that is supposed to be eaten in a hurry:
This is how you shall eat it; your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly: it is a passover offering to the Lord. (Exodus 12:11)
Our Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. David Sperling, tells us that the Hebrew word translated here as passover originally had the meaning of protect. This was a feast asking for protection by God.
We can imagine why the Israelites in the biblical story ask for protection. We know that Pharaoh has finally been convinced to free the Israelites from their bondage, and now they are going to travel into the wilderness. Many of us were raised understanding that the reason we eat matzot is because the Israelites left Egypt in a hurry and did not have time to let their bread rise. The Torah tells us:
Remember this day, on which you went free from Egypt, the house of bondage, how the Lord freed you from it with a mighty hand: no leavened bread shall be eaten . . .
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festival to the Lord. Throughout the seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten; no leavened bread shall be found with you, and no leaven shall be found in all your territory. (Exodus 13:3-7)
But what came first: the festival where we eat matzot, or the festival where we celebrate the liberation from bondage? As has been mentioned before in Torah Study, the ancient Israelite community was agricultural and had ancient festivals that recognized the agricultural cycle. As the community became more urban, former agricultural festivals needed to be rebranded. According to William Propp, Exodus 23 contains the oldest legal text in the Torah, which is referred to as the Covenant Collection. In it, three festivals for God are specifically mentioned:
Three times a year you shall hold a festival for Me: You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread—eating unleavened bread for seven days as I have commanded you—at the set time in the month of Abib, for in it you went forth from Egypt; . . . and the Feast of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field. (Exodus 23:14:16)
The Feast of the Harvest and the Feast of the Ingathering are clearly harvest festivals. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, with its connection to Passover, does not fit in here. We cannot say for sure what agricultural event the Feast of Unleavened Bread originally observed, but scholars believe it is likely the first to have been rebranded. One way that was accomplished was by inserting detailing text, such as the number of days to celebrate or, or why it is being celebrated at all! The passage would make more sense if it simply read:
Three times a year you shall hold a festival for Me: You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; and the Feast of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field. (Exodus 23:14:16)
The text as we currently have it feels clumsy, which is a flag to scholars that the editor made a change. Another flag for scholars is that the text contradicts itself. To review, the text reads:
This day shall be to you one of remembrance . . . Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. (Exodus 12:14-15)
It is one day or seven days?!?! Whatever it is, it is important. The text goes on to say that whoever does not observe it “shall be cut off from Israel” (Exodus 12:16). In biblical times, being cut off is the worst thing that could happen to a person.
Unleavened bread is mentioned at other times in the Bible. In Genesis 19, Lot prepared a quick meal for his two visitors that included unleavened bread. Lot provided hospitality, while also hurrying his guests on their way. Similarly, in 1 Samuel 28 the woman who has come to be known as the Witch of Endor, prepares a meal for unexpected guests, which includes unleavened bread, and then they hurry on their way.
Reading the Talmud, we learn that the sage Hillel (100-200 CE) said that matzah should not be more than “a handsbreadth” thick. There is also Talmudic discussion about matzah becoming moldy. For anyone who has owned a box of matzah, you know that it never gets moldy. The matzah at the time of the ancient sages was not the matzah we know today. It was probably more like a tortilla, or the bread used in a shawarma. It was used for wrapping meat in it and taking it on the go—it was part of a fast food meal!
Over time, Talmudic discussion adds more restrictions on what is acceptable to officially qualify as matzah, or “unleavened bread.” The Gemara tell us that it cannot rise more than the time it takes a person to walk 2000 cubits (Pesachim 46 a). But who is walking? At what pace do they walk? More and more definition is added, and eventually we get to the point where we are now, where matzah cannot be exposed to the possibility of rising for longer than 18 minutes. The cracker-like bread that we know today did not become the commonly accepted form until the end of the 18th century.
Scholars have come to recognize that the real issue was not that the ancient Israelites needed to leave quickly; it was that there could be no leaven in their midst. Leviticus 2 and 6 both tell us that any offering made to God must not contain leaven. This is not just at Passover. ANY offering made to God at ANY time of year must not contain leaven. Leaven has a powerful, pungent smell, and when added to bread may appear to do magical things to it. Leaven was identified by our ancient ancestors as an ingredient that is not compatible with an offering to our God.
The concept of leaven making something unworthy of God is also picked up in Christianity. In I Corinthians 5, Paul the Apostle tells his followers to “celebrate the festival, not with the old year, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Talmudic sages writing at the same time as Paul also metaphorically identified yeast, or leaven, as “the evil inclination that is within every person.” There is a concept that there is something in us, like yeast in dough, that changes us, or keeps us from doing what we are supposed to do. As always, Rabbi Jaech is impressed with the imagination and ingenuity of our early sages. If these holidays had remained in their original state, we would have no reason to celebrate them today. But, because of their work, these festivals have new meaning for us—even in 2024!
The blog is Tara Keiter’s interpretation of the Temple Israel of Northern Westchester Torah Study session. Misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught are the responsibility of Tara Keiter.