Preface
The shock of learning that Rabbinical Judaism (a.k.a.) Rabbinism authorizes the use of chemical leavening agents such as baking powder and baking soda during Passover was dispiriting. More disappointing, however, was Rabbinism’s tenuous rationale for that justification.
In this article, which examines that subject, the use of the word Torah refers to the Masoretic text of all the Torahs that reside in the sanctuaries of synagogues throughout the world. It does not refer to the Mishnah, Midrash, and Gomorrah, which is sometimes collectively is identified as the “Oral Torah”.
+++
Although it should have spontaneously come from the people of Israel who God extricated from hundreds of years of slavery, the holiday of Passover was exclusively designed and proclaimed by God, himself. God apparently created Passover as a memorial in perpetuity so that the people of Israel in each successive year, would celebrate his successful efforts in freeing them from a lifetime bondage.
The holiday of Passover was officially declared in Exodus 12 (15-20), and later repeated in Deuteronomy 16 (2-6). It is important to note that the declaration of the holiday of Passover took place before the 10th plague in which the smiting of the firstborn of Egypt occurred. That means that the creation of the holiday of Passover was inaugurated by God before the Hebrew people ever left Egypt, Exodus 12 (14-37). Accordingly, with the exception of the first nine plagues, all of Gods post exodus miracles, which extricated the Jews from slavery and delivered them to Canaan had not yet occurred. Thus, the Torah’s description of how Passover was to be celebrated could not have incorporated those incomparable events.
While Passover was decreed in the 13th century B.C.E., its relevance, importance and scope equally applies to all successive years. The annual recollection of the Israelite transition from slavery to freedom becomes more important as time distances us from its actual occurrence.
In over 3,300 years since the establishment of the annual holiday of Passover, there have been numerous Rabbinically authored Haggadahs which suggest an appropriate way in which the holiday is to be celebrated. Fifty years ago, such documents were frequently printed by manufacturers and vendors of Passover foods and distributed to potential customers without cost.
More recently, some families have been inclined to formulate their own imaginative Haggadah to generate interest and special family traditions for the holiday. Most of the contents of such Haggadahs, although historically relevant and symbolic, were not prescribed by the written Torah for the celebration of the Passover. In fact, the description of the celebration of the Passover in the Torah was clear and precise, leaving virtually nothing to the imagination. To truly examine the spirit and rules of the celebration of the Passover, we must first create for ourselves a virtual “clean room of the mind” and confine ourselves to the four comers of the express language of the Torah which gave birth to Passover.
The specific Torah provisions for the celebration of the Passover, (Exodus 12 (15-20) as translated into English by the highly accredited Jewish Publication Society Tanakh, reads as follows: “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. You shall celebrate a sacred occasion on the first day, and a sacred occasion on the seventh day; no work at all, shall be done on them; only what every person is to eat, that alone may be prepared for you. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your ranks out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day throughout the ages as an institution for all time. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening. No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a citizen of the country. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements, you shall eat unleavened bread.”
Extrapolated from the foregoing quote is the following:
- All bread which is eaten during the seven days of Passover must be unleavened i.e., must be made in such a manner as it is absolutely not permitted to rise.
- Leaven, a unique substance which, when introduced into dough will cause it to rise may not reside in a Jewish household during the seven days of Passover, and may not be introduced into any product which will be consumed during that period.
While it might be academically interesting to contemplate how those rules applied to the Israelites of biblical times, that is not within the scope of this inquiry. What is under consideration is, given the Torah’s express rules of Passover, how are those rules to be applied today.
Although It is easy to connect unleavened bread with the speed necessary to exit Egypt, that notion in itself, might be an oversimplification. In the Torah, God mandated the use of unleavened bread on a number of occasions that apparently have little or nothing to do with the Exodus e.g:
- In Leviticus 2 (11) “no meat offering, which he shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for Ye shall bum no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire”.
- In referring to a meat offering to God in Leviticus 6 (16-17), God directs “and the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat; with unleavened the bread shall it be eaten in the holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation. They shall eat it. It shall not be baked with leaven.”
- In Leviticus 2 (4), Aaron and his sons are instructed that if they bring an oblation of a meat offering baked in an oven “it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. And if thy oblation be of a meat offering baked in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mixed with oil.”
The God of Israel appears fond of identifying enduring commitments with relevant symbols. For the promise not to destroy the world again by flood or other means, God selected the rainbow. For his covenant creating the bond between Abraham and God in the creation of the Israelite people, God selected male circumcision. For God’s selection of the Passover as Israel’s eternal recollection of God’s gift of freedom, he selected freedom from leaven and consumption of “unleavened bread” as the affirmative obligation, which was required to be eaten over the seven days of the holiday.The apparent purpose of excluding leavening during the Passover was to grant subsequent Hebrew generations equal spiritual passage with the freed Hebrew slaves in the “God provided” journey between slavery and freedom. As a corollary obligation, Israelites were required to remove all leaven from their households and to eat no leavened bread or other leavened products during the self same period.
The Torah, however, in referring to leaven, does not identify any specific product or procedure wich effectuates the leavening process i.e., that which raises bread or other baked substance from a flat and dense status to a raised, aerated and substantially less dense product. The Torah’s reference is to the leavened and unleavened product itself and not to the manner in which the state of one was altered into the other. Its reference to the word leaven describes an item or procedure in which unleavened bread can be altered into leavened bread. It does not limit it to any kind of leaven or specific leavening process.
As time advances, science and the methods of production change. What is under consideration here are the rules of Passover, as articulated in the Torah. We are not, of course, at liberty to cut Passover to four days or to eliminate the first and last sacred days because the pace of modem life is more demanding. The rules of Passover, as articulated in the Torah are immutable.
Today there are a number of ways to effectuate leavening:
Spontaneous process: The spontaneous leavening process is generally thought to have originated in ancient Egypt. While there is no historical confirmation, it is considered that a batch of dough was allowed to stand before it was baked. Wild yeast cells settled in and grew, producing a fermentation process in which tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide resulted, making the dough to rise. Essentially, when wheat flour is mixed with water, enzymes break down the dough to starches in which the yeast and lactic acid bacteria, naturally present, together make acids and gases that leaven the bread. For that reason, manufacturers of matzoh under rabbinical supervision, do not allow the dough to exist for more than 18 minutes before the baking process commences, or the spontaneous leavening will have started. While fermentation may have been the initial historical leavening process, it is certainly not now the only one.
Biological leavening agents: These include such substances as baker’s yeast, live yeast, kefir, and sourdough starter.
Chemical leavening agents: Baking powder and baking soda are both used to increase the volume and lighten the texture of baked goods. It works by releasing carbon dioxide gas into the batter or dough through an acid-based reaction, causing bubbles in the dough to expand, and thus leavening the dough. The first single-acting baking powder was developed for all by Alfred Byrd in England in 1843. It later became double-acting baking powder which releases some carbon dioxide when dampened and later releases more of the gas when heated by baking, Thus, baking powder and baking soda were both both created, as leavening agents.
Mechanical leavening: included in mechanical leavening is creaming, which is the process of beating sugar crystals and butter together in a mixer. This integrates tiny air bubbles into the mixture. Cream mixtures are usually further leavened by a chemical leavening agent like baking soda, and are often used for cookies.
The language specifically recounted in Exodus 12 (15 – 20) is exquisitely clear as to the requirements of Passover. “No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days and whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the community of Israel .” As observed, the Torah does not particularize what is leaven, nor does it identify any special process in which leavening is accomplished. Leaven is, in any generation, that which makes dough to rise. Leavened baked products are those which have been caused to rise by any leavening process.
Rabbinism, through some unjustified rationale, has concluded that baking soda and baking powder, modem chemical products, are authorized for use on Passover, although they are actually chemical leavening agents. That notion stems from the “logic” that since the original biblical leavening experience occurred when water was added to flour, and resulted in in fermentation, that fermentation is the only form of leaven that is prohibited. An example of that “logic” would reject the use of stainless steel surgical implements from being used in modem circumcision because stainless technology did not exist during biblical times.
Rabbinism is so fragmented by division into Orthodoxy, Conservatism, Reform, Reconstruction, Renewal, Humanistic, and distinctions such as Ashkenazi and Sephardic that it has difficulty speaking with one voice. Yet, within Rabbinism, there appears to be no significant opposition to accept chemical leavening agents for use during Passover.
In human
Rabbinical Judaism should fourthwith declare that all leavening agents are prohibited during the seven days of Passover and that baking powder and baking soda are indisputably prohibited leavening agents. Its failure to do so would be tantamount to a knowing and intentional puncture wound into the scroll of worldwide Torahs since they make absolutely no distinction among leavening agents or leavening processes.
Sadly, Rabbinism’s rejection of, and confrontation with, the rules inherent in the Written Torah are not at all novel. Occasionally they generate out of genuine doctrinal differences. Frequently, however, deviations originate from reasons like notions of untimeliness, inconvenience, discomfort, economic considerations and the like. The methods of avoidance of uncomfortable Torah prescriptions most frequently used are a type of sham and occasionally contorted interpretation of Scripture:
Sham, however, appears to be a more subtle way of seeking to avoid fault for deviation from the Torah. It takes many forms, including:
- The “Eruv” a fictional extension of one’s house by public power or telephone lines (sometimes extending for miles and miles), so as to get around the biblical commandment requiring Jews to remain in their place (home) during the Sabbath. Exodus 16 (29).
- The “documented sale” of one’s business to a Gentile on Friday afternoon with repurchase on Sunday morning in order to justify the business remaining open on the Sabbath without the fault of the owner.
- The lease of one’s agricultural land in Israel to a Gentile every seventh year to avoid the obligation of Shmitah, the biblical obligation, requiring agricultural land in Israel to rest every seventh year. Exodus 23 (10-11) . The owner gets the economic value of the seventh year of the land but the land does not get rested.
- The creation of the fiction that God “ordered” us to light Friday night candles which is recited as part of the Friday evening candle blessings. It conveniently allows the use of that candle light in our homes during Friday evening when lighting a fire would be prohibited. No such order by God appears in the Scriptures. The imaginative creation of such an “order” is little more than a violation of the third of the 10 Commandments, which prohibits taking God’s name in vain.
Positions like these, often with Rabbinical assistance, are little more than a hoax and must be insulting to God who is really the object of that deception.
Creative Dialog
Sham Originator:
Come on God! Have you never heard of Confession and Avoidance?
God:
Schemer! Have you never heard that Vengeance is Mine Sayeth the Lord. Deuteronomy 32 (35)
Douglas Kaplan