Why do we eat matzah? Because during the Exodus, our ancestors had no time for dough to rise.  So they improvised flat cakes without yeast, which could be baked and consumed in haste.  The matzah reminds us that when the chance for liberation comes, we must seize it even if we do not feel ready – indeed, if we wait until we are fully ready, we may never act at all.

Matzah Facts!

  • Matzah has holes to keep it from rising!

  • Shemurah (guarded) matzah is carefully watched from the time the wheat is cut until the matzah if sinally baked, so that no moisture causes it to become chametz (leavened).

  • To make matzah we must work the dough for no longer than 18 minutes or else the natural process of fermentation, or leavening, will occur.

  • Matzah is a metaphor for our own lives.  It teaches us that if we want to achieve freedom, we cannot just sit back and let nature take its course.

  • Matzah is both the bread of slavery and the bread of freedom.  It is the only Passover symbol with two opposing meanings.  Reb Nachman of Bratslov taught that the read itself did not change, but its taste did.


haggadah Section: Motzi-Matzah