Yesterday we saw that the only kind of chametz (leaven) that must be excluded from our homes is the living variety and not non-living forms like sodium bicarbonate and egg white may be retained and used. All food products leavened by this yeast have to be removed from the home including the sourdough which can then be started up from nature again within a matter of days after Chag haMatazah (Unleavened Bread) is over.

However, not everyone agrees with the simplicity and correct spiritual tavnith (pattern) of the Biblical witness. Traditional Judaism does not and neither does the Messianic variety which tends to default to the interpretation of the 'learned elders of Zion' who have invented all kinds of man-made rules. According to the latter, non-living organic and inorganic raising agents also fall under the category of 'chametz' (leaven) implying additional categories of sin (we they indeed invented in droves in the Talmud) which do not exist in the Torah itself.

On what grounds do they make this claim? They say that leavening is just a time element that has nothing to do with the ingredients themselves. They claim that what's important is the fact that the Israelites did not have time to make matzah (leavened bread) and that this is the reason all chametz (leaven), including non-living materials, must be excluded. This cannot be true.

It is not possible to create a brand new fermented starterdough from nothing but flour and water within a day, or even 3 days for that matter. For the dough to ferment for the yeast colony to grow large enough for it to be effectively used to create leavened bread may take as long as 2-3 weeks. So a much longer time than 3 days is needed . What the Israelites didn't have time to do was to add the fermented starter dough or leaven which they already possessed (which they kept and used in their daily lives) to a new fresh dough and to wait for the new fresh dough to be fully leavened and ready to be baked into leavened bread.

If there was no ingredient aspect to leaven, as the Talmudists claim, and the important thing was just a question of 'time', Yahweh would not have commanded that all leaven be removed and destroyed from the Israelites' houses – He would simply have forbidden the time it would have needed to take.

Yahweh's mitzvah (commandment) is during the Festival is therefore twofold:

• 1. The destruction of old chametz (leaven), by removing the ingredient and its 'offspring'; and
• 2. Forbidding the creation of new leaven during that period by commanding that unleavened bread be eaten and that no leaven be found in their homes - i.e, dough was not allowed to be left to allow the development of a sourdough starter during that time period

If we go back and create what Yahweh has destroyed, in this case, recreating chametz (leaven) again when Yahweh has already destroyed it, then we become a transgressor and destroy the divine tavnith (pattern) of Chag haMatzah (Unleavened Bread):

"For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor" (Gal.2:17-18, NKJV).

If we follow the false Talmudic tavnith (pattern) which would require the recreation of the starter dough by literally re-introducing sin into the equation when He has told us to depart from them, we make ourselves sinners all over again. And that is unthinkable.

Let us never forget the central message of Chag haMatzah (Unleavened Bread) which is to soberly consider how quickly sin can corrupt us and to remember the mitzvah (commandment) that sin and our sin nature be cut off altogether so that Yahweh's righteousness can have place to leaven us instead. Amen.

Further Reading

[1] Chag haMatzah 2012 III: First Principles of Spiritual Detoxification