Lots of Matzah: Passover's 'Bread of Affliction'

The Bible calls it the bread of affliction -- unleavened bread, or matzah.

Every year Jewish people around the world are commanded to re-tell the story of their Exodus from Egyptian slavery with a Passover seder and to eat unleavened bread, or matzah, for seven days.

And if the whole country Israel and Jewish people around the world are eating matzah for a week, that's a lot of matzah.

"It's to remember the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt that they did because the Lord made them leave very fast, they had to make bread that didn't have time to rise, and they ate this flat bread which is matzah because they didn't have time to make regular bread," Roy Wolf, vice president of Matzot Aviv, in Bnei Brak, Tel Aviv, told CBN News.

Most Israelis take the commandment to eat unleavened bread seriously and many actually like it. Grocery stores devote whole sections to selling matzah.

Besides regular matzah, you can get egg, whole wheat, and even choco-matzah.
 
"Regular matzo must be from flour and water only. The flour would look to you like regular flour, but it's not regular flour," Wolf explained.

Wolf told CBN News the whole process from mixing to rolling to shaping to baking must be finished in 18 minutes because the moment water touches the flour it starts rising.

"In reality, our process is much, much faster. We want to be as effective, as efficient as possible. And the whole process takes no longer than three or four minutes. But every 15 minutes, in order to avoid to have any leftovers of leavened dough, we have to clean the mixer system," Wolf said.

Wolf is the sixth generation to work in his family's business, which started in 1887. They've been in the current factory in Bnei Brak since 1946.

"The basement here where we have the flour cellars today, the Haganah, the first defense forces [of Israel], used to hide weapons from the British mandate. Since 1946, we've been here making matzo. Of course the factory was refurbished several times," he said.

At Matzot Aviv they make about 20 tons of matzah per day. They start in October and work round the clock for the last month except on the Sabbath to provide matzah to Jewish communities in Israel and around the world. 
 
"We are exporting to over 35 countries to all Jewish communities around the world. From the large communities in North America to even the smallest community because one, there is one person that lives in Wallace Island," he said. "He's the doctor of the island and we are sending him matzah every year. So he will be able to have a seder with matzah from Israel."
 
"We also have Christian communities buying matzah in countries like Korea and Singapore," he said. "I've been told that in some churches it's been used as the holy bread."

The Last Supper would have been a Passover seder with unleavened bread. Because of that many Christians like to take communion with matzah. Some even say that the design of the matzah -- striped and pierced -- is symbolic of the Messiah himself.

You might think with all this matzah-making that the Wolf family would get tired of Passover, but not so.

"We're waiting for this seder. Usually I come very tired for the seder because I'm working until the same day in the afternoon. But it means a lot. This holiday, of course, means a lot to us," he said.

One Israeli compared matzah to a data drive -- passing along information from generation to generation.