TOWN OF DEWITT – On Saunday, April 6, shoppers at the DeWitt Wegmans on were treated to an in-store matzah-making demonstration. The model matzah bakery courtesy of Chabad Lubavitch of Central New York was meant to “bring to life” the spring holiday of Passover and give a hands-on baking expe rience to all participants who stopped by, whether or not they celebrate the eight-day Jewish festival. The interactive bakery was modeled after the famous Hand Shmura Matzah Bakeries in Brooklyn and Jerusalem. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 6, kids and adults alike had a chance to pick up a stalk of wheat, separate the kernels of wheat from the chaff and grind them up into flour. The crispy unleavened flatbread called matzah, which is made from flour and water kept in separate rooms of a bakery regularly but in separate walled booths in this case, is baked within an 18-minute timeframe before the dough mixture rises in accordance with Jewish law. The rationale is that any contact with water before the flour is ready to be mixed and kneaded into dough could cause leavening in the wheat and thus disqualify its use for Passover purposes. The participants giving it a whirl were able to take their own handmade matzah to eat on the go after it came out of the mini oven fully heated. Their guide through the process was Rabbi Yaakov Rapoport, the executive director of Chabad Lubavitch of CNY, who had on an apron and a chef’s hat over his kippah as he served up the matzah with a long wooden spatula. Rapoport said that when making traditional matzah, in the 16th or 17th minute “everything stops” and the bakers clean up, change the tablecloths and wash their hands by the time the clock strikes that 18th minute, making sure there’s no dough underneath their fingernails. “You don’t want any dough from the one batch to be left over to the next, because then it’d be more than 18 minutes,” Rapoport said the afternoon of the free demonstration. “We simulate all of that as much as we can here.” Traditionally, the wheat is only harvested on a sunny day, and before it’s ground into flour, the mill stones used are cleaned thoroughly. Rapoport said he enjoyed having passersby of different ages helping out and taking part in the matzah baking. Even if the individual baking demonstrations didn’t always abide by the stringent conditions followed during actual Passover, he said everyone enjoyed seeing the matzah being made in front of them. Rapoport said that the Jewish shoppers appreciated seeing a religious tradition of theirs shown in public, while the curious non-Jewish shoppers were able to learn more about Passover and how matzah is made before tasting some if they had never tried it before. Passover commemorates the Israelites’ Exodus out of Egypt as they were led by Moses out of slavery and how their firstborns were spared, or “passed over.” The blessing and breaking of matzah, a key part of the ceremonial Seder feasts, is in tribute to both that hurried departure that left no time for the bread to rise and how the raw dough hung over the shoulders of the liberated was baked by the desert sun. Rapoport said the matzah is a reminder to have trust and faith and that the Seder is to be celebrated by Jewish people in the modern day as if they are back in Egypt reliving that escape from oppression, their way of holding onto the tradition and remembering those events of over 3,300 years ago. Passover is being observed this year Saturday, April 12 through Sunday, April 20. It began before sundown on the first day and it concludes after nightfall on the last day. ...read more read less