ST. GEORGE, UTAH — A special kind of unleavened bread is being readied for distribution in a quiet corner of southern Utah, where the local rabbi estimates as many as 2,000 Jews live among a population predominately affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, popularly known as Mormons.
Rabbi Mendy Cohen, the 28-year-old Chabad Lubavitch “emissary” who leads the outreach, will place individual pieces of “shmurah,” or “watched,” matzah in a box labeled “A Time to Gift.” He will then offer these free to Jews who are interested.
The eight-day Passover holiday, bracketed by formal meals known as a seder, centers on forsaking any product made with yeast or that has risen in the baking process. Hence, the unleavened bread, which commemorates the hastily prepared flatbreads consumed by the Hebrews leaving Egyptian slavery, is a focal point of the observance.
Why is this matzah different from all other matzahs? Rabbi Cohen says the answer lies in the original way unleavened bread was prepared.
Shmurah matzah, he said, “is the traditional matzah that dated back to the way they used to make it years ago.”
The “watched” element, Rabbi Cohen explained, refers to the wheat grown and used for the unleavened bread. From the time the grain is harvested until it is ground and baked, the wheat is “watched very carefully” to make sure no water causes any fermentation.
Although the commercially produced matzah often stocked in multipacks at grocery stores is “100% Kosher” for the holiday, he said, those who produce the shmurah matzah “want to be extra careful because Passover is a very, very special holiday.”
Passover begins at sundown on Friday.
Lubavitchers, who follow the teachings of the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, also believe the shmurah matzah is both the “bread of faith” and the “bread of healing.”
Rabbi Cohen said, “If you have struggled with belief or faith, this [matzah] will help you and to reconnect to yourself and to your soul, as well as healing, spiritual healing and physical healing.”
It also has a historical element for the Lubavitch community. Rabbi Schneerson’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, led a Lubavitch community in what is today Dnieper, Ukraine, when the country was part of the Soviet Union. The communist authorities didn’t like Rabbi Levi’s activities and ultimately sent him to a remote village in Kazakhstan. He died in 1944 in what was then the Kazakh capital of Almaty.
When the younger Rabbi Schneerson became the leader of the Lubavitcher movement, he took a special interest in promoting the baking and distribution of shmurah matzah, the bread that led to his father’s arrest by Stalinist forces, Rabbi Cohen said.
Today, “millions” get to receive shmurah matzah because of the initiative started by the man they call “The Rebbe,” he said.
The specially prepared unleavened bread “represents our heritage and our history. And it’s very special to be able to connect to that,” Rabbi Cohen said.
Equally poignant, he said, is that April 12 was the 120th birth anniversary of the Rebbe, sparking the Lubavitcher movement to ramp up the distribution of the shmurah matzahs.
Rabbi Cohen said the unleavened bread was manufactured in Ukraine and exported before the war started. He said the group would also make special efforts to distribute shmurah matzahs to Ukrainian Jews unable to flee the fighting.
Along with the present-day observance of an ancient feast, Rabbi Cohen said, Passover has an added meaning for Jews today.
He noted that “when God commands us to do a certain commandment, it’s all about reliving that moment in history” and connecting to the spiritual meaning of the festival.
“The idea of Passover is to be able to be liberated from these hardships that are holding you down from being your free self,” Rabbi Cohen said. “The message of Passover is to be able to liberate yourself and tell you you have the power, the capability and the ability within you in order to go that extra mile and liberate yourself from your personal setbacks.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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