What is Matzah?
Matzah is a type of bread made from dough of one of the five grains that has not fermented.
In the Torah, Matzah is referred to as “bread of affliction,” probably due to its association as the food of the poor during ancient times.
Matzah symbolizes positive behavioral traits:
Humility: it remains thin and flat, not inflating like chametz.
Freedom: the definition of ‘freedom’ is loyalty to your principles without being influenced by the trends of others and their value ladder. Similarly, matzah maintains its original form, unlike bread, it isn’t ‘influenced’ by yeast.
As part of the preparations for Passover, one must bake “shmurah matzah” (guarded matzah) which is consumed during the holiday. It is called this because the entire process of harvesting, grinding, and baking is done under careful ‘guard’.
One of the main commandments of Passover is eating matzah on the Seder night. The Exodus from Egypt was done quickly and hurriedly. The Israelites didn’t have time to leaven their dough and instead baked matzah. By eating matzah, we remind ourselves and demonstrate the miracle of redemption from Egypt.
Efforts should be made to ensure that every Jew, men, women, and children, eat at least a “kazayit” (olive-sized portion, an ancient volume measurement equal to the volume of an olive, in our times: 27 grams, approximately the volume of a standard matchbox) of matzah. An important part of the commandment is to eat – at least on the Seder night – specifically round “shmurah matzah”, which is made by hand, not by a machine.
Visiting a Matzah Bakery
If you’ve never visited a matzah bakery, here you can ‘enter’ and ‘tour’ it virtually. The baking of “shmurah matzah” involves a lot of care and caution, and it’s important that we appreciate the hard work that goes into it.
- Preliminary Preparation: One of the strictest observances in matzah baking is maintaining a distance between the flour and water until the dough is formed. The person responsible for mixing the flour and water stands with a large bowl between two closed compartments, each with small windows. The flour – like the water – is located in a separate compartment where a person sits whose role is to weigh and measure the exact quantity needed for the dough.
- For the Sake of the Mitzvah: Before every action taken in the course of matzah baking, the people say: “for the sake of the mitzvah of matzah.”
- Mixing: The person responsible for mixing the dough announces: ‘flour’, and the ‘flour man’ pours the flour into the bowl through the window in the compartment. Then the responsible person announces: ‘water’, and the ‘water man’ pours the water into the bowl. From this moment, the matzah must be baked and ready within less than 18 minutes! The mixer begins his work immediately, without delay and swiftly, until he gets a soft and not overworked dough.
- Kneading: The ‘kneader’ receives the dough from the mixer and quickly processes it until it is ready for rolling. In most bakeries, a steel lever is installed, attached to a pivot at the end of the table, and with it pressure is applied to the dough to make it solid and ready for baking. This job is one of the hardest physical tasks in the manual matzah baking process.
- Dough Dividing: The ‘dough divider’ receives the processed dough, cuts slices from it with a sharp knife, and passes them to the ‘rollers’.
- Shaping: The first ‘rollers’ flatten the piece of dough in the palm of their hand and with their fingers into a round shape, by pushing and stretching.
- Flattening: The other ‘rollers’ flatten the dough again, using a steel or wooden roller, and significantly enlarge the round shape.
- Finishing: The ‘finishers’ thin out the dough and give it its final matzah shape using a special roller. This is a job that requires great skill, and the final outcome of the matzah is greatly affected by the quality of their work.
- Perforating: So that the matzah will not inflate in the oven, they are perforated using a special roller made of iron or plastic, and then the perforated matzahs are ‘dressed’ on a long wooden stick.
- Baking: The baker takes the stick and inserts the matzahs in rotating movements into the oven. Baking time is just a few seconds! He then removes the matzahs with a special rod with a flat iron plate at its end, and places them on an iron rack to cool.
This job too requires great skill, both because of the high heat around the oven and because of the speed and vigilance required in this work: he must remove the matzahs at the exact moment they are baked enough, while also being careful not to delay the perforated matzahs waiting to enter the oven – and all this within 18 minutes from the moment of mixing the water and flour at the first ‘station’.
