Pastor Deborah
Matzah or matzo, is an unleavened flatbread that is part of Jewish cuisine and forms an integral element of the Passover festival, during which chametz (leaven and five grains that, per Jewish law, are self-leavening) is forbidden.
This flat bread is known as “matzah”.
The three Hebrew letters are mem, tzaddik, and hei.
Matzo is also symbolic, representing both freedom and humility.
It's sometimes spelled matzoh or matzah, from the Hebrew matztzah, "unleavened bread," or literally, "juiceless."
It is a symbol of ritual and spiritual purity, free of leaven just as we must free ourselves of the “leaven” of ego, sin, and old habits.
Sin represents ego.
A matzah is made using only specially supervised (yeast free) wheat and water.
It is then baked precisely eighteen minutes (the number symbolizing life).
Why is matzah so basic to the celebration of Passover?
Why is Passover called ChagHaMatzos, "the Holiday of Matzos" by the Torah?
Why is this simple food a foundation of Jewish experience and ideology?
Why has matzah come to symbolize human freedom?
Matzah has many aspects.
It is the "bread of affliction," poor man's bread, eaten by slaves.
It is also the bread of liberation and freedom.
Jesus was afflicted.
He was crushed and burnt on the cross.
Today, we are free from sin.
No more a slave of sin.
Bread is the staff of life, but matzah is the most basic bread, the simplest food made by man.
Matzah involves the amalgamation of the three basic elements that define civilized man: GRAIN, WATER and FIRE.
No external element beyond flour and water is permitted to define or influence its form.
We are the salt of this world.
Matzah is made of flour and cold water -- nothing more.
If the mixture of flour and water was allowed to stand for more than 18 minutes, the process of fermentation has already begun to take place.
Yeast bacteria, found in the air, invade the dough, multiply by the millions and cause fermentation.
The yeast microorganisms are an uninvited invading army, intruding on the flour and water mixture, helping themselves to a delicious meal of sugar molecules.
As the yeast microorganisms multiply by the billions, they release the carbon dioxide gas that sours the dough, causing it to rise and become airy and light.
The life Jesus has given us is already complete.
Our lives are complete and perfect in Christ.
CHAMETZ is "leaven" — any food that's made of grain and water that have been allowed to ferment and "rise."
The intervention of this outside force is a symbolic expression of the intrusion of outside forces on man; forces that sway people from their chosen determined path and entice them to sin, compromising human independence, autonomy and choice.
Yeast microorganisms begin their work independent of human will, independent of the person who combined the flour and water which constitutes the dough mix.
Fermentation, i.e. CHAMETZ, represents these negative forces.
It represents the inclination to evil, the urge to sin, the influence of alien ideas, pleasures and forces.
It is the uninvited voice that sways us to ignore the presence and power of evil, until it is too late.
Sin has been removed from our spirit.
What is the actual difference in the process by which we bake bread – pure chametz – and the process by which we bake matzah?
The same dough can be used for both.
The difference is this:
In order to keep the matzah dough from fermenting, rising and leavening – and thus becoming chametz and forbidden for Passover use –
the matzah dough is continuously worked, kneaded, rolled and flattened during the initial stage of the process.
The bakers don’t pause even for an instant.
Only by working very thoroughly in this kneading and rolling phase, and then rushing it to the ovens, do they ensure its identity as matzah.
A single moment’s delay (although technically the delay could be as long as 18 minutes in urgent circumstances)
could change its status from that which enables us to fulfill the mitzvah of eating matzah, to something forbidden on Passover.
What is the difference between MATZAH and CHAMETZ?
The difference between MATZAH and CHAMETZ is, quite literally, a matter of DILIGENCE, CONCENTRATION, UNCEASING effort,
and PRIMARILY, an ACUTE AWARENESS of TIME.
Dough made of flour and water that stands for more than 18 minutes before it is fully baked becomes chametz, leaven.
Matzah is the food that represents all these qualities – of NOT SITTING BACK and allowing things to run their natural course.
It is the symbol of performing tasks with ZEAL and FOCUS, WHEN they need to be done and not a moment later.
This characteristic, known as zerizut, alacrity, is one of the key ingredients in to living a spiritual life.
Today, as New Creation, we are the apple of God's eyes.
EPHESIANS 5:11-17 MSG
Don’t waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness.
Expose these things for the sham they are.
It’s a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see.
Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.
EPHESIANS 5:11-17 MSG
Wake up from your sleep,
Climb out of your coffins;
Christ will show you the light!
So watch your step.
Use your head.
Make the most of every chance you get.
These are desperate times! Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly.
Make sure you UNDERSTAND WHAT the MASTER WANTS.
We need to understand what is the will of God.
Not live our lives wasting every minute with no eternal value.
Do something that has eternal value.
This is the will of God.
1 CORINTHIANS 9:27 EASY
I make my body do what I want it to do.
I make it like MY SLAVE.
I have told God's message to other people.
I do not want to lose the prize myself.
So I try very much to obey the rules of the race.
Because matzah is bread that is not leavened,
it represents man IN CONTROL of his passions -- exercising his independent, DISCIPLINED WILL, UNINFLUENCED by external forces.
Our recreated spirit man. We have been made holy in our spirit man.
Matzah is the opposite of chametz.
To paraphrase Rabbi Chaim Friedlander, one of the giants of Jewish thought in our generation, fermentation demonstrates cause and effect in the world of nature.
When we witness nature at work -- apparently doing things by itself, without any outside intervention -- we see how natural processes have the effect of concealing the Hand of God.
Matzos are baked QUICKLY, in an effort to overcome the influences and limitations of time.
We bake flat, crisp matzah in order to reenact the Exodus, when the Children of Israel fled Egypt in a hurry, as the Torah says: "You shall eat matzot during seven days…bread of suffering, for you departed Egypt in great haste."
EXODUS 12:33-34 EASY
The Egyptians were telling the Israelites to leave quickly.
They wanted them to go out of the country IMMEDIATELY.
The Egyptians said, ‘If we do not send them away IMMEDIATELY, we will all die!’
EXODUS 12:33-34 EASY
So the Israelites took their bread before they had cooked it.
They had not even put the yeast into it.
They put the bread in dishes and they put clothes round the dishes.
Then they carried the dishes on their shoulders.
EXODUS 12:39 EASY
The Israelites cooked the bread that they had brought with them from Egypt.
It had NO YEAST in it, because they had to leave Egypt QUICKLY.
The Egyptians did not let them wait.
So the Israelites DID NOT HAVE TIME to prepare any food for themselves.
Eating matzah is an act of DEFYING the laws of NATURE, TIME and HISTORY.
An excerpt from "Living Beyond Time", Artscroll Publications.
Eating matzah is an act of DEFYING the laws of NATURE, TIME and HISTORY.
An excerpt from "Living Beyond Time", Artscroll Publications.
This mitzvah teaches that God's control of nature and history is above and BEYOND the constraints and limitations of TIME.
God does not require cause and effect.
He does not need time in order to accomplish His goals.
On Passover, we too must emulate God and become creative spiritually by HURRYING TIME, by acting with ZEAL and SPEED, by LIVING LIFE BEYOND TIME, in partnership with God who is ABOVE TIME and is TIMELESS.
We are limiting God.
Water turned into wine.
God is beyond time.
We need to follow God's timing.
We RESPOND to GOD'S WILL by ACTING in DEFIANCE of nature, by BREAKING the limits imposed by time and nature.
The hasty departure of the Jews from Egypt was due to the Plague of the Deaths of Firstborn Egyptians, which convinced Pharaoh that if he did not respond to God's pressures without an additional moment's delay, all of Egypt faced immediate collapse and destruction.
For Egypt to survive, Israel must leave IMMEDIATELY.
And for Israel to survive, Israel had to flee IMMEDIATELY.
Flee youthful lust.
Just run and don't try to fight temptation.
Don't sit there and try to rebuke.
God forced Pharaoh's hand.
He did this to teach Pharaoh and all of mankind that BEHIND the normal course of events, which can be described as the workings of cause and effect,
GOD'S HAND compels the forces of history and nature to CONFORM to HIS AGENDA.
Don't think for a moment that everything is natural.
God is in control.
Whole world have to acknowledge that there is a God.
As the Maharal (Rabbi Yehuda Loewe ben Bezalel, a seminal figure in Jewish thought) explains,
it was necessary that mankind become AWARE of the fact that the Exodus was the direct result of the Will and intervention of God.
MATZAH is the only food whose manufacture demands that it be created without time.
The prohibition of leaven also teaches us that nature does not operate independently but is controlled by God.
The Maharal explains that it is for this reason that they were commanded to eat matzah when they observed the Passover of their liberation and for every subsequent Passover throughout all eternity.
Passover represents to the Jews the freedom from slavery.
When we eat the bread of life, it is a celebration of our freedom from sin.
Unleavened bread used in Holy Communion - No yeast inside to show that we have been liberated; freedom from sin.
Cup - Blood of Jesus; taking away our sins.
Matzah is the only food whose manufacture demands that it be created without time -- BEYOND TIME as QUICKLY as possible.
The prohibition of leaven also teaches us that nature does not operate independently but is controlled by God.
When God tells us something, He is beyond time.
Nature is the Will of God concealed in the natural world.
Where applied to the human being himself, the Sages teach that the "puffed up" nature of CHAMETZ symbolizes the character trait of arrogance and conceit.
Head knowledge puffed up.
The flat, unleavened matzah represents TOTAL HUMILITY.
Humility is the beginning of liberation and the foundation of spiritual growth.
Only a person who can acknowledge his shortcomings and submit to a higher wisdom can free himself from his own limitations.
God teaches us humility.
Before promotion and exaltation is humility.
Jesus was the unleavened bread, the one that was given for our lives.
Only a person who can acknowledge his shortcomings, weaknesses, they begin to free themselves and is humble.
In our weaknesses is His strength made perfect.
Before God uses us, He has to show us that we are dust.
We come before God and said "Lord, we need your Ahavah love."
Whatever we think we can do by ourselves, God cannot give us the supernatural.
We acknowledge that "God I cannot, but you can."
When we eat matzah, we INTERNALISE the quality of HUMILITY as the essence of faith.
By not eating chametz, we rid ourselves of arrogance and self-centeredness.
Jesus humbled Himself.
Arrogance, pride and self-centeredness is all about oruselves.
When a person is humble, there is no more "I" but the "Lord".
Boast in the Lord.
In a symbolic sense, the Children of Israel had become "fermented" -- to the point where they had almost become chametz.
God saved Israel from becoming chametz, which would have spelled Israel's destruction.
It was the redeeming Hand of God which guaranteed that Israel would remain "MATZAH," the essence of HUMILITY, for all time to come.
God delivered Israel out of Egypt.
God wants us to blossom in the nature of Christ.
Jesus is coming to take a church without spots and wrinkles.
Not a church that is famous or big.
Chametz is "leaven" — any food that's made of grain and water that have been allowed to ferment and "rise."
Chametz is the antithesis of matzah, the unleavened bread we eat on Passover to recall the haste in which we left Egypt, and the humble faith by which we merited redemption.
Matzah is the symbol of the Exodus, a central component of the Seder rituals, and the heart of the "Festival of Matzot" (as Passover is called in the Torah).
And the flip-side of eating matzah is getting rid of chametz — and the egotism and spiritual coarseness it represents.
1 CORINTHIANS 5:8 TOJB2011
So let us celebrate Pesach, not with old chametz, nor with the chametz of kavvanah ra'ah (malice) and wickedness, but with MATZOT of kenut (sincerity) and emes.
Emes (Emet) - With the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth
Let our life reflect Christ.
MATTHEW 16:6 KJV
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Sinners acknowledge their shortcomings and weakness and need Jesus.
Pharisees think they don't need Jesus.
MITZVAH
Mitzvah is Hebrew for commandment.
Mitzvot is the plural form of Mitzvah.
In Yiddish and then in English, it acquired a colloquial meaning of “good deed,”
and in truth, many good deeds are actually the fulfillment of commandments, but the literal meaning is “commandment.”
The term mitzvah comes from the root word tzavta, which means “CONNECTION.”
What makes a mitzvah a mitzvah is its emphasis on ACTION.
Mitzvah becomes a good deed because it emphasizes on action.
Jesus already removed the sins, ego and pride for us.
With the Matzah, now we can do the Mitzvah. Hence, the "Vav" is there.
A mitzvah is a DECISIVE ACT that embodies empathy and kindness while bringing us closer to others.
Positive thoughts and wishes, while always welcome, are NOT mitzvot.
Mitzvot are more than a creed—they’re about DOING DEEDS.
Mitzvot have been integral to Judaism for millennia; the Torah, for example, references 613 mitzvot.
Several of these only applied during Biblical times, such as worshipping at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
However, some mitzvot have not only maintained their relevance throughout the ages, but also continue providing a compass for living a Jewish life—yes, even today.
Many Jewish people continue to practice mitzvot, such as observing Shabbat, keeping kosher, and celebrating Jewish holidays.
These practices keep us connected to Judaism and our local Jewish community.
Meanwhile, other mitzvot are more widespread and recognizable across different cultures, like being honest, treating others respectfully, honoring parents, visiting the sick, and caring for animals.
Bar and Bat Mitzvah
A Bar or Bat Mitzvah is a coming of age ceremony for Jewish boys and girls when they reach the age of 12 or 13.
This ceremony marks the time when a boy or girl becomes a Jewish adult.
At age 13 a boy becomes a Bar Mitzvah (a son of the commandments) and at age 12 a girl becomes a Bat Mitzvah (a daughter of the commandments).
Note that the Bar Mitzvah isn’t first and foremost an event, but a state of being.
The ceremony is simply a way to celebrate and impress upon the boy the significance of his milestone.
Our whole life is about our new being; New Creation.
Many in the Jewish faith may comment, “I was never “Bar Mitzvahed.”
It’s true they may have never had a ceremony to celebrate, but all Jewish boys step into the obligations of a JEWISH ADULT at age THIRTEEN – regardless whether a ceremony was held or not.
Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies are significant because they are seen as the time of coming of age, when a child becomes an adult.
After these ceremonies, Jewish boys and girls become responsible for living according to Jewish law.
At this point, each young person has to accept the law and its obligations, participate fully in services at the synagogue and set a good example for others.
After the ceremony, Jewish boys can be counted as part of a minyan. (number) In Reform synagogues, girls who are Bat Mitzvah can also be counted.
They are counted as people who are responsible to do the service.
Bar Mitzvah ceremony
A Bar Mitzvah happens around a boy’s 13th birthday and is part of a service in the synagogue.
The boy prepares by spending a lot of time studying the Torah, and then reads from the Torah during the ceremony.
The boy also puts on the tefillin for the first time.
The rabbi gives a talk, speaking to both the boy and his family and to the rest of the community.
The boy might also give a talk to the people gathered.
It is traditional for the boy’s father to recite a prayer of thanks to God for bringing his son to maturity.
The boy receives gifts and there is a celebratory meal.
LUKE 2:42-43 TPT
When Jesus turned TWELVE, his parents took him to Jerusalem to observe the Passover, as was their custom.
A full day after they began their journey home, Joseph and Mary realized that Jesus was missing.
LUKE 2:44-45 TPT
They had assumed he was somewhere in their entourage, but he was nowhere to be found.
After a frantic search among relatives and friends, Mary and Joseph returned to Jerusalem to search for him.
LUKE 2:46-47 TPT
After being separated from him for three days, they finally found him in the temple, sitting among the Jewish teachers, listening to them and asking probing questions.
All who heard Jesus speak were awestruck at his INTELLIGENT UNDERSTANDING of ALL that was being discussed and at his WISE ANSWERS to their questions.
LUKE 2:48-49 TPT
His parents were shocked to find him there, and Mary scolded him, saying, “Son, your father and I have searched for you everywhere!
We have been worried sick over not finding you.
Why would you do this to us?”
Jesus said to them, “Why would you need to search for me?
Didn’t you know that it was necessary for me to be here IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE, consumed with HIM?”
LUKE 2:52 TPT
As JESUS GREW, SO DID his WISDOM and MATURITY.
The favor of men increased upon his life, for he was greatly loved by God.
Wisdom and maturity is very important.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:11 TPT
When I was a child, I spoke about childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned like a child.
But the day came WHEN I MATURED, and I SET ASIDE my CHILDISH WAYS.
Characteristics of an immature child is selfish, self-centered.
Ego of the old nature which is born from Satan.
Jesus was matured and people wants to come to Him.
For the above reasons, the words "MITZVAH" and "MATZAH" are analogous.
Our Sages teach, "mitzvah she'haba'ahleyadcha al tachmitzena, when a mitzvah comes your way, do not allow it to ferment"
i.e. when the opportunity to do a mitzvah arises, DO it QUICKLY.
When a good deed comes your way, do not allow it to ferment.
Any commandments or instructions comes our way, quickly do it.
(Eg: When the money comes, quickly tithe and offer and don't keep or wait until we see if we have enough for the month, else it will become fermented).
Whatever things God ask us to do in the Bible, just do it quickly.
This teaching applies the URGENCY of baking Passover matzah with alacrity (brisk and cheerful readiness) to all mitzvot.
The Jew is expected to CONQUER TIME, to LIVE BEYOND TIME, to associate his LIFE with GOD, Who is TIMELESS and ETERNAL.
Old testament points to the new in Christ.
We conquer time before time conquers us.
Our life with God is not limited by time and space.
The Jew NEVER WASTES TIME; the present is NOW -- this is WHY it is so precious.
The Jew employs time to bend this time-bound world to the goals of eternity.
Time is money to us in the world.
For the Jews, time is money.
Labour with rest knowing that He is the one who provides.
This is done by making TIME a precious commodity --
by FILLING IT with TORAH, MITZVOT and CHESSED (goodness).
An excerpt from "Living Beyond Time", Artscroll Publications.
Jews were to be a witness and the light to the Gentiles Nation.
We are to be the light to the world, to the unbelievers.
GALATIANS 6:7-8 TPT
God will never be mocked!
For what you plant will always be the very thing you harvest.
The harvest you reap reveals the seed that you planted.
If you plant the corrupt seeds of self-life into this natural realm, you can expect a harvest of corruption.
If you plant the good seeds of Spirit-life you will reap beautiful fruits that grow from the everlasting life of the Spirit.
GALATIANS 6:9-10 TPT
And don’t allow yourselves to be weary in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming!
Take advantage of EVERY OPPORTUNITY to be a blessing to others, especially to our brothers and sisters in the family of faith!
In the Jewish culture, they have even more offerings (different types of tithing and offerings).
Giving to the spiritual teacher, giving to the poor and giving to the household of faith.
Take every opportunity to give to others.
An opportunity for us to be blessed.
In giving, we will receive.
Today, we can do it by grace.
Becomes our nature to do the things that the Jewish people were commanded to do.
The matzah carries another significant lesson.
It is unadorned, unpretentious, and unadulterated, suggesting how to perform a mitzvah – in a way that is unpretentious, unadulterated, and not puffed up with self-regard – exactly like matzah.
Let not our right hand know what our left hand is doing.
The matzah/mitzvah connection teaches something else as well. We are bidden not to just possess matzah, but to EAT it.
Just as we ingest the matzah making it part of our system, so too we must internalize the mitzvot that we perform, making them an integral part of us.
Observing Shabbat is not merely to abstain from creative activity; it is to make Shabbat part of our selves, to realize that there is a Creator of the universe Who resides above us.
Wearing tefillin is not simply to place small black boxes on our arm and forehead;
it is to internalize what those black boxes contain: the Oneness of God, the requirement to serve Him with all that we are and all that we possess.
Not just put scriptures on the wall but most importantly is to put it inside our heart too.
As we perform the mitzvah of eating matzah, may the equivalence of the two inspire us to absorb its various messages:
Greater zeal and diligence in all that we do;
a deepened awareness of the significance of TIME;
a heightened CONNECTION with GOD and MAN through more GENUINENESS and SIMPLICITY and less pretentiousness and puffery.
May we have an internalized Passover, and not only with food.
Let it be part of our New Creation.
No sin, no selfishness inside us.
Now, we can obey God's commandment and do good deeds.
We eat the Matzah (the sincerity and character of Christ, the Word of God), then the Mitzvah comes out in our action.
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