The Unleavened Bread

“And this day shall become a memorial for you, and you shall observe it as a festival for the Lord, for your generations, as an eternal decree shall you observe it. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove the leaven from your homes ... you shall guard the unleavened bread, because on this very day I will take you out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day for your generations as an eternal decree” says the Bible (Exodus 12:14-17).

Even today, almost every Jewish home eats the unleavened bread called Matzah from Passover night for next 7 days and Chametz (leavened bread/normal bread) is forbidden. That’s why we were asked to store bread in advance. The coming 1 week you will not find bread in markets, unless you go to Arab shops! Matzah is made simply from flour and water and cooked very quickly (not more than 18 min) as the Israelites left Egypt in such haste, they could not wait for their bread dough to rise and the resulting product was matza. (Exodus 12:39). The process of making Matzah involves lot of rules and regulations and is labour intensive. Hence most secular homes prefer commercially available Matzah (1P). A stack of three matzot covered with a white napkin is placed on the Seder table (2P). see below for further details...