It never ceases to amaze me how few people read the Torah - as opposed to glancing through it. We’ve seen a great squabble in the Knesset over the sale of leavened bread on Pesach. Everyone firmly believes that leaven is prohibited on Pesach. Really?
Then how comes that wine is allowed? Wine is the ultimate hametz (leaven) as it appears through the process of leavening, fermentation. Ancients used wine and beer as fermenting agents.
The matzot are as leavening as any other bread. In antiquity, crumbs of old bread were used for leavening, as housewives empirically discovered them to contain yeast. But matzot contain the very same yeast after a few days in the open air with any degree of humidity. Just like any other bread, crumbs of old matzot can be used in dough to jump-start leavening.
During the Passover in Egypt, Jews prepared dough in the regular way, there is not a hint of it being any different from any other day’s dough. It was prepared in the regular dishes - not the sterile-for-Pesach utensils. The dough was prepared as usual - that is, with crumbs of old bread. The dough was there next day (Exodus 12:41) when we left our houses - therefore it was prepared the previous evening, as is customary in the Middle East until this day. From the time of kneading until taking the dough out of houses, many hours have passed; compare with the modern 18-minute cutoff for the matzot dough.
Jews took the dough on the march, and carried it in overcoats upon our shoulders (Exodus 12:34). Now imagine those clothes: dump from sweat, heated by sun, infested with fungi. That was the perfect medium for leavening. How ridiculous is to emulate that with sterile utensils cleansed of the microscopic traces of leaven.
We baked this dough on the way from Raamses to Sukkot. Even though Mechilta is adamant that the trip was miraculously fast, it still took a considerable time as Jews had enough time to bake the bread during the march. So the dough was leavened by then.
So, what is the prohibited hametz? The word “hametz” is commonly interpreted as “leaven” or “leavened product.” The first reading is nonsense: the concept of leaven has only appeared two centuries ago. Before then, there was no specific leaven: bakers commonly used old crumbs to achieve leavening. The second reading is also impossible, as other leavened products such as wine were allowed.
Reading “hametz” as “leaven” makes no sense in Exodus 12:39: “They roasted dough because it was not leavened.” And if it were leavened, shouldn’t we roast it?
The etymological meaning of “hametz” is straightforward: hm for “hot” and mtz for “pressed.” There is no connotation of leavening: hametz is just any baked bread. Contrast matzah, “pressed” bread, which was afh, roasted. So matzot are flat sun- or coal-roasted bread.
The traditional interpretation of hametz as leaven developed from the fact that baked bread was normally leavened. Sun-roasted bread was made quickly, thus unleavened. Eventually, however, Jews developed a habit of baking non-leavened dough on Pesach, which is contrary to the Torah’s injunction. At Pesach, we imitate the hurry of Exodus, and therefore symbolically roast matzot quickly rather than slowly baking bread.
To make matzot, take any dough and roast it in sun or on open fire. The prohibited hametz is not leavened bread, but any baked products.
