The Feast of Unleavened Bread

The Feast of Unleavened Bread, or Hag HaMatzah ("khag ha-MAH-tza") lasts from the fifteenth through the twenty-first days of the first month. (Lev. 23:6) But there are several prerequisite events leading up to it.

YHWH commanded us to select a lamb on the tenth of the month of the Aviv, and guard it until late in the afternoon of the fourteenth of the month, then slaughter the lamb and put its blood on the doorposts, and roast the whole lamb--head, innards and all--over fire. One household--or possibly two or three neighboring households if they are small--is to eat it together, and not leave any of it until morning; whatever is leftover is burnt. At least in Egypt, it was to be eaten in a hurry, with the whole household dressed and ready to travel. (Ex. 12:3-20) This is called the Passover, or Pesakh ("PAY-sock").

Pesakh is not just another name for Hag HaMatzah, though the term has been popularly used that way even since Yahshua's time. Pesakh is specifically the offering of the lamb to be eaten in commemoration of the Exodus. The word Pesakh comes from a word meaning to limp or to "skip", which is exactly what the messenger of death did to those who obediently placed the blood on the doorposts, forming there the letter "kheth", which is the first letter of the word for "life".

Pesakh is on the fourteenth, but since the Hebrew day begins at evening, some people think it is done as the fourteenth begins. But "evening" means "mixture" or "transition" in Hebrew, and other parts of the commandment clarify that it means "as the fourteenth is ‘bleeding' into the fifteenth"--i.e., not at the evening that begins the fourteenth, but the evening that ends it:

‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.
‘For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra'ĕl, whether sojourner or native of the land. (Ex. 12:18-19)
"Seven days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day is a festival to YHWH. (Ex. 13:6)

Since unleavened bread is already to be eaten at the Passover, thus beginning Hag haMatzah, if the Passover was at the beginning of the fourteenth, we would actually be eating unleavened bread for eight, not seven days.

But anyone who eats anything leavened during those seven days is to be cut off from the community of Israel. (Ex. 12:15)

We are also commanded to continue celebrating this festival throughout our generations, having no leaven in our homes (or any place we meet or inhabit) from the time of the Pesakh offering until the end of the seventh day thereafter, and treating the first and last day of the festival like a Sabbath, except that we can cook food. We are to pass on to our children the story of what YHWH did so it will not be forgotten. (Ex. 13:5-10)

All males are to appear before YHWH three times per year, and this is one of those times. (Ex. 23:14-18) We are told here also to guard the appointed time--that is, do not lose track of when it is, so that we can be sure to proclaim it on schedule and observe it at the right time--the appointment when YHWH Himself will show up.

We are commanded not just to eat no khametz (KHAH-mets)--that is, nothing leavened--but also, on the positive side, eat unleavened bread on each of the seven days. (Ex. 34:18)

No servile work is to be done on the first or last day of the Feast, and when the Temple is in existence we are to bring an offering by fire to YHWH on each of the seven days. (Lev. 23:4-8) Specifically, two young bulls and one ram, and seven lambs a year old, with their grain offering, three-tenths [of an ephah] of fine flour per bull, and two-tenths per ram, and one-tenth for each lamb. (Num. 28:16-25)

We are not to slaughter it at home or in our own cities, but at the place YHWH designates (which ended up being the Temple in Jerusalem). We are told to celebrate there all night, then return to our tents in the morning. (Deut. 16:1-8)

No one who is uncircumcised is permitted to eat of the Passover lamb, nor may anyone who has alienated or estranged himself from the community of Israel. (Ex. 12:43-48)

Unlike all the other feasts, the Passover is a slaughter that has an alternate time in which someone who is ritually unclean due to touching a dead body or unavoidably detained while abroad on a journey may bring the offering exactly one month later than the prescribed time. (Numbers 9:6-13) This is called Pesakh haSheyni (secondary Passover).

The Renewed Covenant tells us that the purpose of the observance is that we might clean out the old leaven. But it also reiterates that we should observe the festival, not with old leaven of evil and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5:6-8)--just in case someone might erroneously think (as many have) that the fact that the covenant was renewed meant that such commands were done away with. 

Themes of the Festival:

- Deliverance and Freedom
- The firstborn (death of firstborn in Egypt, "Israel is My firstborn", Levites substitute for the firstborn in Israel as priestly assistants)
- Being real (no leaven, which makes it look like more is there than really is)
- Purging the old and making room for the new
- Clearing out the wrong things that have permeated so there's room for the right
- Never forget what YHWH did to set us free
- Passing on to our children what YHWH has done
- Leaving Egypt (picture of the world at large or the pagan church) behind

Other Names for the festival include "YHWH's Passover" (Exodus 12:27), "Z'man Kheruteynu" (The Time of our Freedom, Exodus 13:14), and "Hag haAviv" (Feast of the Ripening Barley)–since it falls during the month of Aviv.

In Jewish Tradition, Matzah (essentially a large unleavened cracker) must be made in under 18 minutes. A 15-step seder ("order") follows, including four questions from the children ("Why is this night different from all other nights?", etc., and answers from the parents or in songs)

Ten small pieces of leavened bread are hidden around the house, then the children go find them, and sweep them onto a wooden spoon with a dove's feather and put them in a bag which is then burned at the synagogue.

A special seder plate, sometimes with indentations cut into it for the separate components, is used to ensure that every commandment regarding what is to be eaten is kept. The bitter herbs are dipped in salt water to recall our tears while enslaved in Egypt, and ten drops of wine are spattered onto the seder plate to memorialize the blood of the firstborn of Egypt who had to die before we could be freed. In lieu of lamb (since the Temple is no longer present), a lamb's shankbone is included on the plate as a reminder. The meal is eaten while reclining at table (as free men did in ancient times). Matzah-ball soup and the "Hillel sandwich"--horseradish mixed with kharoseth (khah-RO-set) made from apples and wine) between two pieces of matzah--are favorite traditional parts of the meal.

During the seder , the Afikomen (the middle of three matzoth wrapped between napkins) is hidden away during three of the four cups of wine drunk throughout the seder, and the children hunt for it. The one who finds it gets a prize, usually monetary.

A cup is set for Eliyahu (Elijah) the prophet and the door is left open so that he might enter in when he returns to usher in the Messiah--which he will by tradition do at Passover. (Interestingly, John the Immerser, whose father was told he would come "in the spirit and power of Eliyahu", was born at Passover.)

Sometimes we follow the Jewish seder very closely. At other times we use something more original, and still other times we use a combination of the two. No two seders are the same!

We start several weeks before Pesakh to identify products in our homes that contain leaven, and start separating it into a designated place in the house so it can be used up or removed form the house.

We don't buy anything leavened after a certain point, then during the last few days we begin the search in earnest. We clean places in the house that don't get cleaned the rest of the year--air conditioning ducts, inside the toaster, under the kids' beds, inside the fold-out sofa, etc.!

While some consider things like beans or rice, which swell when put in water, as off limits during this feast, we only consider leavening to be anything that actually makes something rise, like yeast, baking soda, baking powder, etc. Even some yeast extracts, like torula yeast, may be eaten, because these by-products do not make other foods rise.

We burn the last of the leaven found in our houses before entering into the seder.

Scripture commands each household celebrating the feast together, and sharing it with neighbors only if the household is too small to eat a whole lamb. (Ex. 12:3-4)

We use our fanciest dishes and silverware in honor of YHWH's presence.

We have additional teaching sessions on the first day of the feast.

Sometimes we recline at table; on other occasions we eat quickly with sandals on our feet and staff in hand as at the first Pesakh. We dress with clothing that looks as ancient in style as possible.

We make homemade matzah baked in an earthen oven with a variety of flavorings.

We have a barbecue with roast lamb (occasionally even slaughtering it ourselves as a memorial of the real Passover, since there is no Temple at present).

We try to make it as visual and memorable as possible for the children, so we often have toy frogs, flies, etc. for them to throw at the right time in the recounting of the story of the Exodus. We may make a piñata in the shape of a lamb--or of Pharaoh!

We sometimes have competitions for writings songs about the festival, cooking a dish using matzah in the most creative way, etc. Chocolate-and-almond-covered matzah ("almond bark") is a favorite!

But what does it mean?

While vacuuming out the air conditioning ducts in the kitchen to get rid of the hidden leaven, it becomes quite obvious that we are not going to get every single crumb out. But what could seem just a token gesture is still meaningful in its symbolism, because it represents getting out what we ARE able to get out. The fact that we can’t get every last speck out should not make us hesitate to do our very best. That is not what we are judged on; it is a picture, an allegory, of the real, underlying problem.

That's important, because we are not going to get every bit of sinfulness out of our lives since, as Avi Ben Mordechai is fond of saying, WE are GMOs (genetically-modified organisms)! Ever since the poison of the forbidden fruit got into Adam's bloodstream, we are corrupt in the very lifeblood that flows through our veins. We are not going to totally stop being sinful until the poison finishes its work.

But we CAN get rid of the leaven that counts most--that which would be in a position to let us accidentally eat it in a moment of forgetfulness during this week. And that is a picture of the fact that we CAN get rid of the sins that count most--those particular sinful habits that most affect our neighbors and could cause them to stumble.  

I get frequent calls from the Red Cross, because I have a blood type that anyone can use. It can save someone else's life, no matter what blood type they have.

The lamb that was slain at Passover to ward off the death that was coming upon Egypt had to be a particular type too--an unblemished one with no broken bones. It was a picture of someone later who would be introduced to the world as "Elohim's own lamb, that carries away the sins of the world." He had a blood type unique to only himself--an unblemished blood because, by a means we might not fully understand, he did not carry that corrupted blood of Adam. The small part we do know about how is that it had to do with his having no human father, only a mother. (Arthur Custance delved into the scientific details of why this matters.) But for the first time since that day in the Garden, there was a blood type available that could save the life of anyone who received it. People who receive my special blood will still die someday, because it is still corrupt, even if somehow "better". But his is genuine, unmarred human blood—the only thing capable of paying the price that can buy us back real, fully human bodies that do not host that modified blood, once the death promised to any who carry that mutation has taken its toll and we are free to be raised back up and restored to the original pattern, partaking instead from a “tree of life” that makes us immune to the “second death”.  

That great day is foreshadowed by the “minor” (but is it?) feast of Firstfruits that falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The firstfruit of what was buried in the ground like a seed was “harvested” on that day as a promise of a more complete harvest (he along with some others who had been dead—for even the most perfect stalk of barley could not by itself constitute an entire “sheaf”).

So this festival holds out the greatest hope, being the first time YHWH said, “When I see the blood, I will skip over you,” as a foreshadowing of the more comprehensive passing-over available to us through the pure human blood which was finally available when the Second Adam passed all the tests—the final one, quite appropriately, being in another Garden right on the edge of what his first royal ancestor called “the Valley of the Shadow of Death”--and thus became qualified to be the “Lamb of Elohim” in every detail: without spot or blemish inside or out. 

And he does share that blood with any who will request a transfusion. This Lamb can redeem our firstborn “donkey”-thoughts as well as redeeming us from the sting of death. It is the commemoration outlined in the commands regarding this feast that is the context for his words, “As often as you do this, remember me as you do.” I think that includes not just the bread and wine, but the lamb as well.  Messiah is called our Passover; it is only a deep understanding of the commands given in regard to the feast that will open up to us the depths of all that this means and allow us to be part of the current outworking of the people known in each generation as the “called-out ones”, just as YHWH called His broader “son”, Israel, out of Egypt.  

What Pharaoh(s) will we have to confront to bring about the greater exodus that Jeremiah promises? We cannot tell, but we do know that if YHWH calls us to confront them as He called Moshe, then He will be there with us, for He tells us to “come”, not just “go” to the tyrant with the words that can open the door to a new level of freedom.

Remember that, in addition to the many benefits to our bodies from abstaining from leaven for a week, there are many other things we want to be ridding our hearts of. Be sure to leave time for some soul-searching before the end of the feast, so the freedom we celebrated at Passover can take root in the most fertile soil, and so the seven demons do not replace the one that was cast out.

A Day to Tell Your (Grand)Children About

What more can we say about Passover? Maybe with the firstborn dying, the Egyptians thought the rest of their children were next. (12:33) But what YHWH was really bringing Judgment against was their gods—including their own pride. (Ex. 12:12) Yet the main reason YHWH hardened Pharaoh’s heart (thickening the plot), the stated purpose of our annual commemorations, is for the children’s sake (12:26; 13:8)-- “so [your descendants] may know that I am YHWH.” (Ex. 10:2) 

So we do need to rehash it, especially since another meaning of these annual “holy convocations” commanded for the 1st and 7th days (Ex. 12:16) is “rehearsals”; they are not only about the past but about a time (or two) to come later.

First, another particular Pesakh that would again change the course of world history: “A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Therefore purge out the old leaven, so that you may be a new lump, since you are [in reality] unleavened, since Messiah our Passover has been slaughtered for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice or wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor. 5:6-8) 

 So how exactly is Messiah our Passover?

Many details correlate: He was brought into the House for inspection on the 10th of the month. (Ex. 12:3; Mat. 21:12ff) And the final verdict was that no fault was found in him. (Ex. 12:5; Luke 23:4) He stayed up all night with no sleep (Mat. 26:38-40), keeping the vigil specified for all generations of Israelites. (Ex. 12:42) Hyssop played a role in each of the two Passovers. (12:22; Yochanan 19:29)
But “Passover” in 1 Cor. 5 specifically refers to the lamb. Of course this brings to mind his cousin’s introducing him to society as “the lamb of Elohim who carries away the sin of the world.” (Yoch. 1:29,36)

That sounds a bit like Yom Kippur but also gave new meaning to, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you.” (Ex. 12:13)

  The blood is called a sign, a mark, a token. Something similar was said (by a different but related word) about the high priest Y’hoshua upon Judah’s return from Babylonian captivity: “You will judge My house… Y’hoshua…, you…are the sign/token [of a future event]…I will bring forth My servant, the Offshoot, and I will remove the iniquity of that Land in one day.” (Zekh. 3:7-9) That Offshoot is from the stump of David’s line (Jer. 23:5; 33:15, cut off (Jer.22:30) but still alive. (Isa. 11:1) And this same Y’hoshua was called “the man whose name is [the same as] the Offshoot” —because the Aramaic version of his name is Yeshua! (Ezra 3:2, etc.) Did his namesake, another Yeshua, not remove our iniquity (i.e., “carry away our sin”) in one day—that very day of Passover? (Isaiah 53:6)

Physical freedom was not enough; we needed to be freed from something much deeper than slavery. YHWH loved us that much. But as with the first time, we have to take Him up on His offer to enjoy it.

Second, the Exodus was a rehearsal for a greater one coming later—in days yet to come. (Jer. 16:14-15)

And will similar crises precede that Exodus?  “In that day the great trumpet will be blown, and they shall come who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were thrust out into the land of Egypt, and shall worship YHWH on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.” (Isa. 27:13) And “in that day” the Offshoot will be “beautiful and honorable to those of Israel who have escaped”. (Isa. 4:2) 

 This escape could be metaphorical or literal, but if it is like most Hebraic sayings, if it can be both, it probably is. For Assyria is where the Northern Kingdom was taken captive (2 Kings 17:6) and from there, to many places. But we were also taken captive by our conquerors’ philosophies, from which we do need deliverance.

YHWH put “a difference between Egypt and Israel” during the plagues. (11:7) Will He do that again? It sounds like it: “My people,…hide yourselves for a short while until the indignation is past.” (Isa. 26:20) 

Yet once Israel is back home, “there shall be one law for the homeborn and the guest who is staying with you.” (Ex. 12:49)  No double standard.  In his flesh Yeshua broke down the wall that had kept strangers separate from the covenant. (Eph. 2:11-18) No difference, if we don’t, like Pharaoh, refuse to humble ourselves. (Ex. 10:3) 

 Teach your descendants about these other two Passovers too!