Pesach

Will the Real Matzah Please Stand Up?

Adapted from www.chabad.org

Will the "real" matzah please stand up?  Or is there no one "real" matzah? Perhaps there are many meanings to this simple bread.

The sages of the Talmud and the Kabbalah give matzah different, even conflicting, names: "The Bread of Faith," "The Bread of Poverty," "The Bread of Affliction," "The Bread of Humility," "The Bread of Instruction," "The Bread of Healing."

And when was the matzah born? We seem to have pre-Exodus matzah and post-Exodus matzah.  At the beginning of the seder we state that matzah was eaten in Egypt. "This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt."  But just before dinner, we teach that matzah was eaten only after leaving Egypt. "We eat matzah -- why? Because the dough of our ancestors did not have time to rise before the Holy One of Blessing redeemed them."

What can we learn from these contradictions in the life of the "Bread of Faith"?  Perhaps we can find a lesson about the life of faith - about faith before and after life's many journeys.  When a person is innocent, not yet rich in life experience, they may express exuberant optimism.  They eat, so to speak, the "Bread of Poverty."  With life experience come some inevitable disappointments, as a person eats the "Bread of Affliction" and possibly the "Bread of Humility."  Life lessons serve up the "Bread of Instruction," and can bring a new faith that one can succeed in a challenging world, "The Bread of Healing."

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