Celebrating Passover early
SANDTON - About 100 senior citizens participated in a pre-Passover experience at the Chabad House Model Matzah Factory.
According to the director of Chabad’s senior programmes, Rabbi Ari Kievman, the event featured a video presentation of the process of manufacturing shmura [preserved] matzah in Israel.
Kievamn said, “That was followed by a hands-on experience; from grinding the flour to kneading the dough, to baking the matzahs in a commercial oven, all within 18 minutes, which is the time limit in which matzah must be made”.
The Model Matzah Factory is a project of Chabad’s youth programmes and is directed by Rabbi Pinni Pink. Kievman stated the matzah produced at the factory is not to be used on Passover and actual Passover matzah needs to be manufactured in a highly-controlled environment to ensure that it does not become leavened. Passover commemorates the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt and is celebrated with festive Seder dinners. Other holiday observances include restricting the consumption of leavened products such as bread and pasta and eating unleavened matzah instead. The eight-day festival of Passover is celebrated this year from sundown on 14 April and ends on 22 April.
Details: www.ChabadSouthAfrica.org/Passover.
