Baking the Bread of Freedom

I walked into the supermarket to buy kosher food for the holiday of Passover.  To my amazement there were no less than five brands of kosher wines and matzah.  The wines were from Italy, France, Israel, California, and upstate New York.  The matzah display had boxes from Israel, Cincinnati, and New York.

When I was growing up we would eat special hand made matzahs for Passover.  The matzah was made from only two ingredients, flour and water.  The flour and water must be mixed and kneaded by hand and when the dough is formed, small lumps of dough are given to a baker who hand flattens the dough with small 2 foot rolling pins.  Then, a special metal roller, with dozens of pins, is rolled over the flat dough.  The dough is shaped and baked in an open flat baker's stove - all within 18 minutes from start to finish.

Let me describe my first visit to a matzah bakery before Passover.  I was 8 years old and my Chasidic grandfather, called Zaydee, called me and said "Eli, Pesach kumpt un m'darf shmura matzah, kim backen matzah."  Translated loosely - "Eli, Pesach is coming and we need shmura matzah, come bake matzah."

Let me try to describe a visit to strange place in a strange land.

The bakery was located in a dilapidated area of Williamsburg, New York.  From the outside there were old rusty grates on the window.  The building was an old red brick style factory.  It must have been built in the late 1880s.  The steps leading into the building were made of old cement and had cracks from the many years of use.  The doors were old heavy iron doors that had gigantic hinges.  The place looked like it was from the dark ages.  I stood looking at the place afraid to go in.  Zaydee, however, had no time for my hesitation.  He just held on to my hand and said "Yingele, kim arin un too a mitzvah." - Sonny boy, come in and perform the mitzvah of baking matzah for Pesach.

Once inside I saw an incredible sight.  There were men running back and forth.  Some were shouting at the men and women to roll the rolling pins on the dough quicker.  Others were singing songs and the baker kept on yelling at the top of his voice "Le shaim mitzvas matzah" - "for the sake of the deed of matzah", meaning that each matzah was being baked for the express purpose of fulfilling G‑d's command of having unleavened bread - matzah.  I had never seen so many things happening at once.

In one area stood an old man with a long beard and peyos (long side locks).  His only job was to be the water man.  He was dressed in a bright white apron and every once in a while he would take a cup of water from a 25 gallon jug prepared from the night before and pour it into a new stainless steel basin.  As he did that a second person would dump a huge cup of the special flour into the basin whilst a third strong young man would begin to mix the flour and water by hand.  He would not stop moving his hands until all the flour was mixed and had turned into dough.  His hands twirled faster and faster like a tornado.  It was magic to me.  Then another person would take the dough and make it into little lumps and give it to workers at the kneading table.  There must have been 5 tables with 8 workers to a table.  All of the workers were moving the rolling pins as fast as possible.  The heavier the person rolling the rolling pin the flatter the dough became and the matzahs were thinner.  This answers the long unanswered question of why some hand made matzahs are thicker than others?

Each matzah is hand made and then carried to the oven on the rolling pin.  The baker puts the matzah into the oven and after a minute he removes the baked matzah.  If he waits too long the matzah burns to a crisp.  The matzah is then placed on a table that is perforated with hundreds of holes with a fan underneath the table cooling off the matzah.

The finished matzah is then hand carried to the packer who puts eight matzahs to a pound box and then puts them away very carefully as he doesn't want the matzah to break.

I remember seeing the people coming and going, the singing, and the flour mixing with the water.  The mixer had the largest muscular hands I had ever seen.  After kneading the thousands of batches his hands were like steel vises.

The women of all ages were dressed, as prescribed by the Jewish orthodox modesty code, with the hair on their heads completely covered, their arms covered to the wrists, and their dresses worn over their knees.  Their language was a United Nations of Yiddish, Hungarian, Hebrew and a little English.  Many of the arms of the men and women bore the branded tattoo number from the Aushwitz concentration death camp.  For them, each matzah baked was a statement of their faith and good fortune.

It was a strange but happy world to see all the ages thrown together for the holiday.  The holiday of Passover commences Wednesday night, March 31st at sunset.

The story of Passover is an inspirational one.  It tells us how a whole nation of people were freed from years of tyrany and enslavement.  They experienced total freedom from Egyptian bondage. The Passover night festive meal, called the seder, symoblizes the ultimate liberation for all people in all places in all times.  This year when we eat our matzah we should break off a piece and share it with our neighbour telling him that the message of liberation is for all people.  A happy Passover to you all.