Unleavened Bread
The Hebrew word matza, or matzo, (both pronounced MAHT-suh) — the name appears in the Bible's Book of Exodus (12:39) — describes the most ancient and humble of breads. Flat, crackerlike, unleavened, it is substituted for yeast bread at the Jewish Passover Seder, the spring meal and service that recalls redemption from slavery in Egypt 3,000 years ago.
The leader of the service, reading from a prayer book called the Haggadah, begins by holding aloft a piece of matzo, and proclaims, “This is the bread of poverty which our forbears ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry enter and eat; let all who are needy come to our Passover feast.”
One would think that on such an occasion, something more substantial than matzo would be offered to the celebrants (not to mention to the hungry and needy). But not only is matzo eaten at the Seder, it is the only bread consumed throughout the entire Passover
