On the Chocolate Trail

The Jewish “starter story” of the Book of Exodus traced Jewish salvation from slavery to freedom through matzah which is perhaps the oldest type of bread in continuous Jewish consumption. The narrative recounted Joseph’s rise to power in Egypt through themes of rationing of grain supplies. Bread and its unleavened version, matzah, helped to fashion the Jewish people. Any Sunday school child can explain matzah by recalling that “the dough was not leavened” when the ancient Hebrews, escaping Egyptian slavery, “could not delay.” So, they wrapped their kneading bowls in their cloaks, and later, arriving at a place called Sukkot, they fashioned “unleavened cakes,” or matzah, from that dough. And, to this day Jews everywhere exert countless hours to remove any leavening or chameitz from homes and bakeries (and according to a newly passed law in Israel, from hospitals, too) and eat matzah instead for the entire festival of Passover.

But, all the of the effort and energy focused on eliminating chameitz from our homes and from our food, all of the matzah rituals and requirements rely on a misunderstanding of the biblical passage! And, because of that mix-up, we end up without bread year after year. It’s a simple matter of chemistry. Flour and water combined–even without any starter or leaven–warmed by the desert sun, hidden under cloths, would result in a risen dough, chameitz. The dough did rise.

Behind the Bible’s anti-chameitz passages hovered not a dough mishap but antagonism to ancient Egypt’s advanced yeasted bread technology and its polytheistic worship. The unleavened matzah of Passover condemned ancient Egypt in a polemic against Egyptian power acquired through its grain. Passover’s chameitz-free zone rejected Egypt’s heathen gods whose worship depended on offerings of bread, according to the Zohar. More recently, food writer Gil Marks wrote in The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food:

“The invention of the starter is generally attributed to the ancient Egyptians, who created and refined many of the bread-baking techniques still used today. The association of raised bread with Egypt, as well as the starter’s Egyptian origins, certainly contribute to the inclusion and significance of chameitz …as Passover taboos.” (p. 543)