Passover Tidbit No. 4

The Matzah

We all should know the account of Pesach, YHVH ask Moshe to instruct the people to be ready to leave Egypt, and for that reason they needed to eat while fully dressed, with their sandals on their feet, and staff in their hand.  They had no time to let the bread rise, so they were not to use leaven, thus the tradition to make only unleavened bread during the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  This unleavened bread is called mats-tsaw’ מצה in Hebrew. 

Khaw-mates' כמץ is the word for leaven and is always a picture of sin in Scripture.  The word means to infect slowly, exactly what both yeast and sin do. It puffs up the bread, and puffs up the sinner. So the bread of Pesach is to be sin free.  OK, that seems obvious and makes good sense. But remember too that the very bread of life, Y'shua, or Jesus in English, is and has to be, sin free as well.  So the Pesach picture could really look no other way.

The traditional Pesach Seder (the Hebrew word for order or instruction) uses two sets of three of the mats-tsaw’ or unleavened bread loaves, we might call them patties, or crackers, or cakes, as they are flat, more or less round, and about 8 inches in diameter stacked one on top of the other. 

At the Pesach table, three of these are stacked together and covered with a cloth (the word in Greek for the cloth is Spargano, the same word for the linen strips used to “swaddle” the baby Y’shua).  Another stack of three is hidden away in the home three days before the seder begins.  I'm sure it is just a coincidence that they use three loaves, and break the center one, because after all the Yehudiym (Jews) do not believe Y’shua is the Messiah …. yet, the middle person of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the center cake, is the star of the event.

And three days? Really? The Yehudiym (Jews) hide them for 3 days? Do you know anyone else hidden, perhaps in a grave, for 3 days? 

As you probably know the mats-tsah’ are striped from cooking on a hot rock, or rack today, and pierced to let the steam out, so as not to ruin the bread, and they are usually round symbolizing the generation or dore דר a revolution (of time, a cycle of thngs).  In Hebrew one never just goes to the store, they are always coming back right?  Life is a circle it begins where it ends and ends where it begins, so too the round, striped, pierced, cake we ingest on the Seder.  Again, any reminder of Y’shua is probably just coincidence, right?  

The unleavened bread used at the Seder table, as we know, is called mats'-tsah, spelled MTA, Mem Tav Aleph מתא. The Hebrew word for found is also pronounced mats-tsah’ but spelled MTH, Mem Tav Hey מתה.  Another coincidence?

As with all Hebrew words, each letter is a picture, and while the picture for each letter never changes, it can have several meanings, so each word using the same letters must have related and similar meanings.  In this way we know the unleavened bread of Pesach is forever directly linked to the act of finding the bread ... of life.  Again, Pesach is about finding Y'shua, which is from the Hebrew word for salvation, so then Pesach is about salvation, rather than the quant "Jewish" tradition most Christians see.

At the end of the Seder meal the children in attendance are tasked with tracking down the hidden stack of mats-tsah'.  The child, or children, who first finds the hidden mats-tsah' receive a reward. The children who did not find the bread of life, the mats-tsah', receive no reward.  Let's think about that symbolism for a moment.  (Jeopardy theme music here).  Once found, the center mats-tsah' is removed, then broken, and passed around the table to be served as dessert, called the afi-komen.  

OK let's recap, a striped and pierced, sinless, round piece of the bread of life, is searched for after being hidden three days. Once found the center cake of the three is broken, ingested, or taken to heart, and a reward, or gift, is given to all who find it.  Sounds a little like the account of Y'shua to me, so tell me again why you think Passover is only a Jewish thing?  Again, remember most of the Yehudiym did not believe Y’shua to be the Messiah or savior, why then does the Hebrew Pesach meal look just like Him?

OK, so we can all see the picture of Y'shua in this celebration, but YHVH, the Creator of all Heaven and earth, can certainly do anything He chooses to do.  Is it really such a miracle that the picture of Y’shua is included in the Pesach Seder in the form of the mats-tsah'?  While the actual events of Pesach certainly do point directly at Y’shua, His crucifixion, and resurrection three days later at the Feast of First fruits, and there is no question YHVH did ordain the events we celebrate at this feast as a mik-raw’, or rehearsal, of the sacrifice Y’shua would later make, but why would the Rabbinicl traditions also point directly at Y’shua?

Consider that that YHVH did not include all of the pomp and circumstance of the first Seder meal.  He did not ordain that the wine be mixed with water, He did not ordain the 3 mats-tsah’ use at the table, He did not ordain the finding of the hidden mats-tsah’ after three days and then a reward, or any of a hundred other Yehudiym traditions that point directly at Y’shua as the Ben (Son) of YHVH, they were added later by the Rabbi's who don't beleive Y'shua is he comming Messiah.  Hmmm. 

In fact, much of the traditions contained in the typical Pesach celebration, are mysteries to the Hebrews celebrating them. Ask a Rabbi why they do these things and they often have no answer, they just do it as prescribed by the Rabbis before them. 

The instructions are pretty specific as we read in Shemoth (Exodus) 12, as to how to celebrate, and it includes none of this.  Many of the activities of the Seder are traditions written by Rabbis as they considered and wrote the official Passover Haggadah or guide.  The traditions and actions to be followed and celebrated during the Seder bring to remembrance the occasion of the first Pesach, but also, and somewhat unexpectedly, picture quite clearly the actions of one Y’shua Ha Machiach, the Messiah, or The Christ.  

These Rabbis and teachers did not believe that Y’shua was the Messiah, so how did these traditions come to be?   I might suggest it to be the Hand of YHVH?  Can you possibly see the opportunity here to witness to our Yehudiym brethren, when we not only celebrate the Feasts, but also understand more deeply the pictures contained in the Seder than many 21st century Jews seem to.  How is it the full Feast of Unleavened Bread fulfills so many prophecies contained in the TaNaKh about the coming Messiah?  

After all the very last verse of the TaKaKh, describes the "coming of the great and dreadful day of Yahuha", Mal-akiy (Malachi) 4:6 in that day, in the last days, I might suggest in these days we live in now “ He shall turn the heart of the fathers, to the children and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” In this verse the Children are those who have the testimony of Y'shua and the fathers are those who keep the commandments  (Revelation 1:2, 12:17, 14:12).  I believe the time is coming when the wisdom of the TaNaKh (Old Testament) becomes something sought after by the Christians, the children the house of Yisrah-el’ according to Mal-akiy and at the same time the fathers called the Yahudiym (Jews), will come to see Y'shua as the true and promised Messiah of the TaNaKh.

All of the Feasts are like this.  The meanings are full for the Christian, and provide many opportunities to share Y’shua with our Jewish friends.  At the same time the feasts help to strengthen our own faith.  All Feasts seem designed by the Spirit of Elohiym to bring the hearts of all who follow YHVH together. 

CB