Why “unleavened” bread? (Jan 21, 2026)

Why “unleavened” bread? 

In reading this week’s Torah portion (Parashat Bo:  Exod 10:1-13:16), which deals with the first Passover, I found myself asking, Why unleavened bread (matzot)?

It can’t just be about making some “fast food” to take on the next morning’s trip. Yes, unleavened crackers are a lot more practical than fully-formed loaves of bread.  You can quickly prepare them, stuff them in a convenient pocket for a one-handed snack as you hoof your way into the wilderness.  Matzot is poor man’s bread (fast food). It is just flour and water quickly baked without yeast to puff it up.  As such, it is bread in its simplest and rawest form that is consumable.  On a journey you would only take the bare essentials that you could carry with you.  

Aside from the practicalities of crackers versus loaves, what meaning can we derive from matzot?  Could it be that unleavened bread reflects the “stripped-down/keep it simple” status of the children of Israel at the time they left Egypt?  

After hundreds of years in Egypt, they weren’t ready to dwell in Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel), the place of promised fulfillment. They were raw and unformed as God’s people.  God would add the necessary ingredients to give “rise” to them as a nation during the 40 years of baking in the wilderness.  Fully-formed, they would enter the Promised Land.  [I see a similar theme in Ezekiel 37’s vision of the dry bones that came to life.]

Genesis tells the story of human response to the Creator resulting in the covenant God makes with Abraham and his descendants. Exodus shows us God forming a raw people into a purposeful nation. Leviticus details the recipe that will result in the “rising” documented in Numbers.  Deuteronomy displays that fully-formed loaf ready to inhabit The Land.  

The transformation from crackers to showbread is a process.  Start simple (wherever you are) and God will cause you to rise to your full potential.  Be patient.  The Master Baker knows what He is doing.  It takes time, but the end result is worth the wait.

-Jeff- 

Postscript: What’s Next? Jan 20, 2026

Here is a quick update.  As I mentioned in chapter “123 — The Sum of the Matter,” I have finished telling my story for now.  I don’t intend to stop writing, but after 17 years writing my story, I am now in the process of editing and polishing things up—just a bit.  I expect that to take about 2-3 months.  This blogspot will be updated and I will mirror the finished project on ConfessionsofAWanderingJew.com, my webpage as well as on other “no charge” platforms such as Substack.  In the meantime, I will continue to post short essays here weekly for those of you who are interested.  

I am not interested in writing to get paid for this—I just want to share my story.  But, there may be someone out there who would like this in book format, so I will also publish this as an ebook on Amazon.  

My 2012 book, Messianic Jewish Congregations:  Who Sold this Business to the Gentiles?, based on my 1997 doctoral dissertation, is already on Amazon as in ebook format. I plan to also make it available in a “free” serialized internet version.

I started this blog in 2009 not expecting anyone to notice.  At first I was writing for my 2-yr old grandson.  My thinking was that by the time he was interested in his ancestry, I might not be alive to tell him.  So, I needed to have an imaginary adult audience to speak to as a proxy for him until he reached adulthood.  A cyber audience worked for that, but I was amazed that there were actually real live people out there who were touched by my wild and crazy story!  

Over the years, I have had over 100,000 views.  I have no idea how many of those viewers found the elements of my story of some value, but the these numbers are humbling! 

-Jeff-

 

 

 

123 — The Sum of the Matter (Jan 14, 2026)

    We were stunned by the events of October 7th, 2023.  It took a few days to get our balance as we adjusted to the new reality.  This wasn’t the first time we had lived in a war zone.  Just after our wedding in 1976, we had moved to Rhodesia during the violent and climatic war years 1976-1979 (see chap. 23-57).  Of course we had been in our 20s then and both of us could be active in finding meaningful ways to help out during the historical crisis.  Now in our 70s, we wanted to actively step in to help out, but we had neither the requisite physical vitality nor the cultural/modern Hebrew fluency.  We had to just take care of ourselves for the while staying out of the way while others responded to the crisis.  

Over the coming weeks, we along with the rest of the Israeli society, as well as Jews dispersed around the world, adjusted ourselves to the latest reality.  Yes, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran had been the generational actors determined to eliminate any Jewish presence in our eternal homeland.  They were quickly and enthusiastically joined by waves of others who foolishly asserted that everyone was entitled to a home except Jews. That is what they said, but here is what we knew:

Thus said the Sovereign GOD: I am going to take the Israelite people from among the nations they have gone to, and gather them from every quarter, and bring them to their own land. 

. . . I will make a covenant of friendship with them—it shall be an everlasting covenant with them—I will establish them and multiply them, and I will place My Sanctuary among them forever. 

My Presence shall rest over them; I will be their God and they shall be My people.  

And when My Sanctuary abides among them forever, the nations shall know that I, GOD, do sanctify Israel.

Ezekiel 37: 21, 26-28 Revised JPS, 2023 

I doubt you heard that in the media reporting!  

We were no longer wandering—we were home!  The violent waves of history would neither intimidate nor deter us from resting under God’s presence in our eternal home.  My mother had worried about 5-year old me planting my Israeli flag (chap 121).  Her concern had been the anti-Jewish reaction of our neighbors.  And, her perspective was probably correct in 1954 when the modern nation of Israel was only one year older than me!  

Ezekiel 37 tells us that God Himself will bring us to our own land for us to plant our flag.  Only then would the “covenant of friendship” be realized.  Only then would His “presence” rest over us.  Finally, only then would the nations know that GOD sanctifies (sets apart) the nation of Israel. So what is God’s purpose in doing this?  Why single out Israel?  What would be the point of the nations of the world knowing that God sanctifies Israel?

I think we can see the answer from the prophet Zechariah:

Thus said GOD: I have returned to Zion, and I will dwell in Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called the City of Faithfulness, and the mount of GOD of Hosts the Holy Mount.

. . . Thus said GOD of Hosts: I will rescue My people from the lands of the east and from the lands of the west, and I will bring them home to dwell in Jerusalem. They shall be My people, and I will be their God—in truth and sincerity.

. . . Thus said GOD of Hosts: Peoples and the inhabitants of many cities shall yet come—the inhabitants of one shall go to the other and say, “Let us go and entreat the favor of GOD, let us seek GOD of Hosts; I will go, too.”  The many peoples and the multitude of nations shall come to seek GOD of Hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of GOD.

Thus said GOD of Hosts: In those days, ten people from nations of every tongue will take hold—they will take hold of every Jew by a corner of their cloak and say, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”

Zech 8:2-3, 7-8, 20-23 Revised JPS, 2023

You may be familiar with the Jewish custom of wearing fringes of strings (tsitsit) hanging down from the “corners” of our clothes (Num 38-40, Deut 22:12).  The purpose is for the Jewish people to to see the fringe and be reminded of our connections to God lest we wander away from Him.  The end of this passage in Zech 8 suggests to me that those strings of connection hanging down from the “corner of their cloak” is also visible to the nations so that they too can connect to God.   

So, this was supposed to be the end of telling my story.  I planned to “sign off” and enjoy our sabbatical/retirement years from our 21st floor front-row seat watching the unfolding Messianic Age and the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth—when His presence rests over us and the world.  

We were at peace in our home, drinking our favorite beverages as we watched the sun set and rise in the “end of days.”   But guess what?  There was a different ending to the story that we hadn’t imagined!  

On July 4, 2024 I wrote the following:

It started with a simple trip and fall on the bumpy sidewalk in front of our Jerusalem apartment. Pegi simply tripped and fell. What should have been a run of the mill treatment for a broken shoulder turned into a major metabolic crisis and the necessity to seek specialized treatment back in the USA. The details are really unimportant. The overall impact was not the shattering of a few bones which could be repaired, but the shattering of a shared dream of no longer wandering--finding our home in Israel after 48 years of marriage. That dream was shattered. But Pegi is my dream and she is my home! 

I hadn’t yet understood that our dream of living in Israel was not lost.  What we had “tasted” in Jerusalem was now part of us.  We take it with us wherever life takes us.  Our flag is planted and still flies in Jerusalem, our eternal home.  

We are no longer wandering and HaShem has sent us on one more (but I hesitate to say “final”) journey.  That’s the funny thing about life—you never know what the future holds, but you can know “who” holds the future!  

I am reminded of the words of King Solomon of Israel as he neared his final days.  In Ecclesiastes he summarizes all of his experiences.  He concludes with the following:

A further word: Because Kohelet (Solomon-the collector of sayings) was a sage, he continued to instruct the people. He listened to and tested the soundness of many maxims. 

Kohelet sought to discover useful sayings and recorded genuinely truthful sayings.  

The sayings of the wise are like goads, like nails fixed in prodding sticks. They were given by one Shepherd.  

A further word: Against them, my son, be warned!  The making of many books is without limit and much study is a wearying of the flesh. 

The sum of the matter, when all is said and done: Revere God and observe the commandments! For this applies to all humankind:  that God will call every creature to account for everything unknown, be it good or bad.

Ecclesiastes 12:9-14 Revised JPS, 2023

—————

I will keep writing on this website, but the historical narration is enough for now.  I hope my adventures and mishaps have resonated with you, the reader, in a meaningful way.  Maybe one of my tsitsit (fringes) is something that helps you connect with God.  

So, it is time to stop recounting stories of my past experiences and share what I am thinking in the present in light of the past and with a vision of the future as another Kohelet — “collector of sayings.”

Shalom,

-Jeff-