Chabad.org Jewish Kids Zone
Jewish Kids Children's Site - featuring fascinating and engaging games, activities, stories and more on Jewish holidays and other Jewish topics
Join Tzivos Hashem today!The Twelve PesukimFind events for Jewish children around the worldFind your Jewish Birthday!Get your letter in the Children's Sefer Torah

Passover Guide
The Big Clean
Chametz vs. Matzah
The Seder Plate
The Seder
The 4 Cups
Tell the Passover Story
Live the Challenge
Countdown to the Giving of the Torah
Multimedia
Stories
Games
Recipes
Arts
Crafts
Puzzles
Features
Live the Challenge
Back To
Passover Home

Chametz vs. Matzah




Share thisPost a CommentPrintSend this page to a friend
3 Comments Posted

But what is Chametz?
Chametz is leaven – any food that’s made of grain and water and been allowed to ferment and rise for more than 18 minutes.

Bread, cereal, cake, cookies, pizza, pasta, bagels, doughnuts…all these are perfect examples of Chametz.

In fact, any processed food that is not certified “Kosher for Passover” may include Chametz ingredients, especially if it contains one of the five grains: wheat, barley, spelt, oats and rye.

Instead of Chametz, we eat Matzah:
A hard, cracker-like bread made from a dough of only flour and water which has not been allowed to rise. We eat Matzah to remember how quickly we left Egypt, and the pure faith we had in G-d, that He would save us.

When G-d told us it was time to leave Egypt, we left straight away, without stopping for a second! Our ancestors had so much faith in G-d, that they put their dough in sacks on their backs, and left– without giving it time to rise. The hot desert sun baked the dough on their backs into the cracker-like bread we eat today: Matzah!

That is one of the reasons why Matzah is also called: “Michlah DeMeHemnutah” which means The Bread of Faith, in Aramaic.

On Pesach we remember the miracles G-d preformed for us, by putting the CRUNCH on Chametz and getting the MUNCH on Matzah!


Share thisPost a CommentPrintSend this page to a friend
3 Comments Posted


The content on this page is copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org, and is produced by Chabad.org. If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with the copyright policy.
 

Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: Mar 26, 2009
chabad.org/kids
i am a Christian School teacher. I make great use of your site as I teach my 6-8 years olds through the Old Testament. We celebrated Purim a few weeks ago and this Sunday we will celebrate Passover. Thanks for your well done presentation! Jackie
Posted By Jackie, CA

Posted: May 1, 2008
Chametz vs. Matzah
Wonderful!
Posted By Lisa, Providence, RI

Posted: Apr 5, 2007
passover mitzvahs
When I heard that eating matzah was the most important mitzvah I thought my dad was crazy. But its true.

Posted By Jacob Babinec , Buffalo Grove, Illinois
via nwschabad.org