FROM THE ARCHIVES: WHYFOR ON THIS DAY ABOVE ALL OTHERS DO WE EAT SALTINES?:

To be a matza: Something profound to think about the next time you take a bite of those funny shaped and sized 'Passover crackers' (Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo, 4/09/04, Jewish World Review)

Bread, chametz, is blown up matza. It is matza that went overboard and became "wild".

What is, after all, the essential difference between both? They are made from exactly the same ingredients. It is only the speed that makes the difference between the two. If the dough is baked quickly you get matza. However, if the dough is left for a while, it will rise and after being baked turns into bread.

The only real difference between the two is therefore hot air. An ingredient of no real substance!

And it is this substance which makes bread look powerful in comparison to matza. It rises, becoming haughty, making the impression that it consists of a great amount of substance and abundance while in reality it mainly consists of hot air. The matza, however is humble, there is no attempt to make more of itself than what it really contains: plain dough.

Bread, then, is an arrogant matza. And it is for this reason that it symbolizes the evil inclination since it is the attitude of haughtiness, blowing oneself up beyond one's real self which leads to undesirable acts that causes man to go astray. It is the source of all transgressions. Would a human being be humble, he or she would not contemplate doing anything wrong. Only arrogance leads man to undesirable deeds.

On Passover, which symbolizes the beginning of the Jewish people, Jews are once more reminded that their mission to become a light to the nations can only start in the spirit of humility.

If you're lucky enough to celebrate East-over you get to eat the bread that actually had time to bake properly.

[Originally posted: April 9, 2004]

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 7, 2007 8:10 PM