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 performed for us, by putting the CRUNCH on Chametz and getting the MUNCH on Matzah!
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