The Charlotte Jewish News - April 2012 - Page 31
Escaping the Box: 18
Minutes to Passover
Freedom
By Edmon J. Rodman
Los Angeles (JTA) — In every
generation, the Haggadah tells us,
the wise, the simple, the non-
askers, and even the baddies are
obligated to see themselves as
though they themselves aetually
had eome out from Egypt.
Unfortunately, the elosest many of
us eome to this ideal is a stroll
through the Passover aisle of our
neighborhood supermarket.
Why does Passover have to
eome in a neatly paekaged box
with easy bake instruetions?
This Passover, to heat up and
personalize my leaving from
Egypt, I deeided to forego the
usual reetangular shrink wrapped
paekages of the holiday’s main
stay, matzah. If our aneestors
eould prepare for their journey in
one night by baking an unleav
ened quiek bread, so eould I.
In my best Mah Nishtanah
singsong I ehanted, “How hard
eould it be to bake homemade
matzah?”
With only a teaspoon full of
baking experienee, I eonsulted
Claudia Roden’s authoritative
“The Book of Jewish Food,”
whieh assured me that Jewish
people onee “made unleavened
bread at home.” Aeeording to
Rodin, all I needed was some
“speeial hard wheat bread flour,”
spring water, an oven, and a fork
to poke holes in the rolled-out
dough.
Problems rose immediately:
The flour is harder to find than
any afikomen. Many observant
Jews will have nothing less than
shmurah flour for their matzah,
whieh is made from wheat that
has been guarded from the time it
was taken to the mill to ensure
that it has not eome in eontaet
with fermentation-eausing mois
ture.
Searehing for shmurah flour, I
ealled a kosher market where I
shop.
“Don’t have it,” said David,
one of the owners, adding, “And I
don’t think it’s available any
where eommereially.”
Next I tried a loeal Chabad-
Lubaviteh rabbi, Mendy Cunin.
“I ean help arrange a trip to
Crown Heights, where there is a
matzah bakery,” he suggested.
That meant traveling aeross the
eountry to Brooklyn, NY. I was in
a rush, I explained.
Unfazed, Rabbi Cunin suggest
ed that as I proeeeded, I should
see the “humility of the matzah.”
“It’s unlike the egotism of the
ehallah, whieh is mostly air,” he
said. “With matzah, what you see
is what you get.”
A Conservative rabbi with
whom I eonsulted had another
opinion, believing that I eould
simply use kosher flour. She sug
gested that I was eovered for
Passover use under the prineiple
of “batel b’shishim,” a loophole
whieh says that if a forbidden
ingredient like ehametz is less
than one-sixtieth of the whole,
then the produet is still OK.
Still, if you ehoose to try this at
home and the origin of your flour
is important, please eonsult a reli
2012 Sydney Taylor Book Awards
Announced by the Association of Jewish
Libraries
gious authority; rabbis do differ.
I prepared my exodus from the
box with a bag of kosher whole
wheat flour and a bottle of spring
water. I eranked up the oven as
high as it would go, to 550
degrees. While waiting for the
oven to reaeh the desired temper
ature, I removed my wateh and
laid it on the kitehen table; I
would need it.
Someone long ago determined
that the matzah-baking proeess
from the time you add water to
flour until you take the unleav
ened bread from the oven eould
not take more than 18 minutes.
Longer than that and the mix
ture eould rise and thus be leav
ened.
As I measured out the ingredi
ents, three parts flour to one part
water, it dawned on me that in
addition to beeoming a baker, I
was now a game-show eontestant,
too. As I readied the mixing bowls
and measuring eups, I imagined a
show ealled “Unleaven Heaven”
or “18 Minutes to Win It.”
Round 1: I added water to
flour, mixed it together with my
hands, kneaded the stieky ball for
a minute and slapped it down.
With a rolling pin I flattened and
spread the dough. I earefully
poked holes with a fork. But when
it eame time to lift the taeo-sized
round, the whole thing wouldn’t
budge. My exodus was stuek.
Round 2:1 eheeked the instrue
tions; I needed to knead longer. As
I did, I eould feel the dough
beeoming less stieky in my hands.
For the bread made in haste the
night before the departure from
Egypt, patienee was an unlisted
ingredient. I flipped the easily
freed round into the oven and
returned to rolling out another.
But why did the kitehen smell like
burning toast? I opened the oven
door to matzah flambe. Two of the
wonders of the Haggadah were
happening right in my kitehen:
fire and pillars of smoke.
Round 3: The fork wasn’t
working; to bake more erisply, the
dough needed more holes.
Veterans of matzah baking use a
kitehen tool ealled a doeker, a
hand roller with spikes. I thought
about buying one. What would
Moses do? Didn’t liberation eall
for taking freedom into your own
hands? So with three forks, some
duet tape and a pieee of eard-
board, I devised a “forkler.” I
mixed, kneaded and rolled. I
forkled. Flipping the round into
the oven with plenty of time to
spare, this time I watehed, guard
ing my freedom earefully. Still
warm out of the oven, I admired
my work as I ate it. It was one part
haste, one part invention, and one
part humility, but all parts with
meaning baked in. And if it tasted
like a ehewier eardboard, well, it
was my eardboard.
(Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA
columnist who writes on Jewish
life from Los Angeles. Contact
him at edmojace@gmail.com.)
The Sydney Taylor Book
Award is presented annually to
outstanding books for ehildren
and teens that authentieally por
tray the Jewish experienee.
Presented by the Assoeiation of
Jewish Libraries sinee 1968, the
award eneourages the publieation
and widespread use of quality
Judaie literature.
The Sydney Taylor Book Award
Winner for Younger Readers:
Chanukah Lights by Miehael J.
Rosen with artwork by Robert
Sabuda (Candlewiek Press)
The Sydney Taylor Book Award
Winner for Older Readers: Music
Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein
by Susan Goldman Rubin
(Charlesbridge Publishing)
The Sydney Taylor Book Award
Winner for Teen Readers: The
Berlin Boxing Club by Robert
Sharenow (Harper Teen, an
imprint of HarperCollins
Publishing)
Sydney Taylor Honor Books for
Younger Readers: Naamah and
the Ark at Night by Susan
Campbell Bartoletti with illustra
tions by Holly Meade
(Candlewiek Press) and Around
the World in One Shabbat written
and illustrated by Durga Yael
Bernhard (Jewish Lights
Publishing)
Sydney Taylor Honor Books for
Older Readers: Lily Renee,
Escape Artist: from Holocaust
Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer
by Trina Robbins with illustra
tions by Anne Timmons and Mo
Oh (Graphie Universe, an imprint
of Lemer Publishing Group, Ine.)
and Hammerin ’ Hank Greenberg:
Basebell Pioneer by Shelley
Sommer (Calkins Creek, an
imprint of Boyd Mills Press) and
Irene’s Jars of Secrets by Mareia
Vaughan with illustrations by Ron
Mazellan (Lee and Low Books)
Sydney Taylor Honor Books for
Teen Readers: Then by Morris
Gleitzman (Henry Holt and
Company) and The Blood Lie by
Shirley Reva Verniek (Cineo
Puntos Press)
The Assoeiation of Jewish
Libraries (AJL) promotes Jewish
literaey through enhaneement of
libraries and library resourees and
through leadership for the profes
sion and praetitioners of Judaiea
librarianship. The Assoeiation fos
ters aeeess to information, learn
ing, teaehing, and researeh relat
ing to Jews, Judaism, the Jewish
experienee, and Israel.
For more information please
visit our website www.jewishli-
braries.org/ or eontaet Amalia
Warshenbrot Email: Amalialma@
ATT.net Phone: 704-365-3313,
AJL Southeast Regional Chapter
rep. ^
The UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture presents
Violins of Hope
April 9-24, 2012
Appearing for the first time in the Americas, violins that telt of the
Holocaust - its history, victims, and survivors - will be on display and
in performance in Charlotte.
In 1996, master Israeli violinmaker Amnur Weinstein began to collect and carefully restore violins that
bad extraordinarv historPes - histories of suffering, fear, courage, and resiliency. Some were played hy
Jewish prisoners In Nazi concentration camps; some belonged to the Kiezmer musical culture, which was
all but destroyed in the Holocaust. These violins bear witness to the power of memory and art to
transform anguish Into hope.
Join us for a series of enhibitions, performances, film screenings, and
lectures that explore the history of music in the face of oppression.
For more Information, visit www.violinsofhopecharlotte.com.
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