Why matzah?

As they have done each spring for 33 centuries, Jews the world over will sit down together at the Passover Seder this Monday and Tuesday night to commemorate the liberation of their ancestors from slavery in ancient Egypt.

The Seder is the world's oldest continuously observed religious ritual, and it is drenched in symbolism. Families partake of bitter herbs to evoke the bitterness of servitude. They dip a morsel of food in salt water to recall the tears of those who suffered under Pharaoh's oppression. They drink four cups of wine, corresponding to four expressions of deliverance promised by God to the Israelites in Exodus 6: "I will bring you out," "I will deliver you," "I will redeem you," and "I will take you." They recite the Haggadah, the traditional text that recounts the story of the exodus from slavery.

By tradition, the youngest person at the table asks the Haggadah's famous Four Questions, which begin: "Why is this night different from all other nights?"

Above all, Jews at every Seder will eat matzah, the hard unleavened flatbread made of flour and water that reflects a double message: On the one hand, matzah (also commonly spelled matzo) is the "bread of distress" that represents the poverty and humbleness of life in bondage. Yet it also represents liberation, for it was the bread the Israelites took with them on the journey out of slavery. As the Book of Exodus relates (12:39): "And they baked loaves of matzah from the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves."

It isn't only at the Seder that matzah is consumed. No leavened bread is permitted at all during the weeklong holiday — no bagels, no rye toast, no croissants, no challah, no Parker House rolls, no baguettes. "You shall not eat anything leavened," God commands the Israelites in Deuteronomy (16:3). "For seven days you shall eat matzahs, the bread of distress, for you departed from the land of Egypt hurriedly — so that you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt as long as you live."

Other than the Passover sacrifice — the paschal lamb that, in ancient times, families brought to the Temple in Jerusalem as an offering and then ate at the Seder meal — matzah and the accompanying ban on leavened foods has always been the most important element of Passover observance. Indeed, "Passover" (in Hebrew, Pesach, which became Pascha in Greek and Latin) is not really the name of the holiday that begins this week. Though it has been colloquially referred to that way for centuries, the holiday's true name is "the Festival of Matzahs." That is how the Hebrew Bible and Jewish liturgy consistently identify it.

But why? What is so significant about eating unleavened bread? How is dry flatbread an icon of redemption? Why does Scripture repeat again and again that Jews should eat matzah to remember their deliverance from Egypt?

For the fascinating answer, I am indebted to food archaeologist Tova Dickstein, whose work is cited by Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of Yeshiva University in an episode of his brilliant podcast, Bible 365.

"Long before the Israelites came to Egypt, Egyptians had learned the secret of leavening bread, even discovering the secret to what we now call sourdough," writes Dickstein. "They learned that ‘starters,' left-over dough that started to ferment, when added to fresh dough and allowed to sit in a warm place for a number of hours, would rise and, when baked, produced loaves of leavened bread." Archaeologists have found evidence of this bread-baking technology: the remnants of ancient Egyptian bakeries dating back far earlier than the reign of Ramesses II, the Nineteenth Dynasty pharaoh identified with the Biblical narrative.

The association of leavened bread with the mighty Egyptian empire was deeply rooted. "In Egypt, bread was not merely food, but the basis of the entire economy," Dickstein notes. "It was the standard of weight in commerce, payment for workers, priests and slaves, and offered to the Egyptian gods in religious ceremonies." The fondness of Egyptians for bread was so pronounced that Herodotus, the 5th century BCE Greek historian, nicknamed them "artophagoi," meaning "eaters of bread." In Egyptian hieroglyphics, a frequent symbol is the cone, which was the shape of Egyptian loaves. Often paired with the ankh, the symbol of life, it was among the most important emblems of Egyptian culture.

As long as they lived in Egypt, the Hebrews, even while enslaved, presumably had access to, and the enjoyment of, freshly baked bread. And that was precisely why they had to demonstrate their willingness to renounce it — not only on their way out of Egypt, but every year thereafter, for seven days each spring.

"Leavened bread is the symbol of what marked Egypt as the most technologically advanced civilization in the ancient world," says Soloveichik on his podcast, and getting rid of such bread was meant to be a tangible renunciation of Egypt, its works, and its worldview. This is a deep theme in Judaism. Much that Egyptian culture honored, Jews were taught to shun, and vice versa. Thus, the obsession with death in the Egyptian belief system was replaced in Judaism by an emphasis on its opposite: "Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live," Moses exhorts the Israelites in his final speech. Egypt buried its pharaohs in spectacular tombs meant to endure and be admired for centuries, whereas Moses, the greatest leader in Jewish history, was buried in an unmarked tomb. While Egypt worshiped a panoply of local gods, Jews introduced the world to monotheism and the belief in a single Creator.

Similarly, the emphasis on matzah as the Hebrews left the house of bondage behind and followed Moses into the desert was a way of affirming their willingness to put their trust in God and to leave the Egyptian mindset behind. As has often been said, it was not enough for Israel to be taken out of Egypt; Egypt had to be taken out of Israel.

That is why the annual Passover festival places such emphasis on matzah. For all the technological brilliance of ancient Egypt it was the faith of the Jews in the God of Abraham that enabled them to emerge onto the world stage and change human history. "It was that faith," says Soloviechik, "that sustained the Jewish people — the people that continued to mark the Festival of Freedom even when, throughout the centuries, they were anything but free."

Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe, from which this is reprinted with permission."