Chametz

As I've said all along, a lot of Jewish rituals and ceremonies resonate with me...and a lot don't.  Regardless of the veracity of the underlying cultural myth* of escaping slavery and persecution, Passover is wonderful for three reasons:

1)  It asks present-day Jews to directly relate to their ancestors.  Many of the readings in the seder refer to "us" not "them," which makes history real for me.

2) Estimates are that more people are enslaved today--including sex workers and child labourers--than any other time in history, which is pretty remarkable. The seder has been adapted to not only remember those who were slaves, but acknowledge those who still are.

3) It is the Jewish equivalent of Christmas or Thanksgiving, a time for family to draw together, with a strong focus on the children.  (The whole point is to pass the story down to the next generation.)  There are no parades or football, but there is eating, drinking, singing, games, and a communal meal.

In fact, the only thing I find fault with is the handling of chametz, or leavened bread.  Exodus:15 reads:

Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; howbeit the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses.

The first part is easy enough: A leavening agent is anything that introduces gas into a bread product, making it lighter and fluffier.  This obviously includes yeast and baking soda, but may also include eggs, butter, or even mechanical action, such as whisking.  Of course, since yeast is present in the air, it's a bit tricky to keep it out of your bread products, but rabbis decided it took 18 minutes for yeast to start rising, so if you mix and bake your bread within that period, it was okay.  (Seriously, who makes this stuff up?)  So matzoh crackers are baked in eighteen minutes, resulting in a flat piece of cardboard.

Now I think going for seven days without bread or cakes as a remembrance to people who have suffered, and are suffering, is a beautiful and meaningful ritual.  But the second part says, "put away leaven out of your houses."  That's pretty straightforward, so Jews will often keep the leaven in their houses, draw up a contact with a non-Jew to "buy" the leaven (but not take possession of it), and after Passover will buy it back!  I can't describe that in any way other than, WTF?  Even worse, synagogues will often coordinate this, selling all the leaven for all of their members!  What are they thinking?!

And yet, these same people who won't actually take the leaven out of their houses will often go to extreme lengths to clean their houses to ensure there are no grains anywhere.  (Traditionally it is done with a feather and a bag, and the bag is then burned!)  Many people will have an entire set of dishes, cutlery, and bakeware to be used only during Passover, to ensure it has never touched leaven (which, as I mentioned, is in the air).

That is the sort of nonsense that really makes my blood boil.  (Did you see how I combined two of the plagues there?  A little Passover humor for you.)  In addition, people are always finding new ways to make bread and cake that is, technically, "Kosher for Passover" but that not only misses the point, it's definitely not kosher.  If you want to eat bread and cake, eat bread and cake--nobody is going to care. But don't make bread and cake and say you are doing it in the spirit of remembering the suffering of others!

Of course, Christians celebrate Passover all year long because of what Jesus said at the Last Supper, which was a Passover celebration.  He passed out the matzoh and said, "This is my body," then poured out the wine and said, "This is my blood."  So now you know why communion wafers taste so awful.

* Despite extensive archaeological searches, there was been no evidence of a group of 200,000-odd slaves in Egypt, escaping Egypt, or wandering the desert for 40 years.  None.