Judah Ari Gross
Times of Israel, Apr. 6, 2022
“And so the hametz wars are seemingly now poised to claim their first victim: Israel’s 36th government.”
It is an annual tradition in Israel to have a brutal food fight in the weeks before Passover — specifically, over the ban on bringing leavened goods, or hametz, into public spaces during the holiday. Generally speaking, secular Israelis oppose such prohibitions, arguing it is a form of religious imposition, while more traditional and conservative Israelis assert they are necessary to maintain the Jewish character of the state.
The rules on hametz come directly from the Bible. Chapter 12 of the Book of Exodus notes that the law commemorates the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt, which, according to the Bible, took place so quickly that they did not have time for their bread to ferment. Therefore, on the Passover holiday, Jews are not only forbidden from consuming all leavened goods, but they are also required to remove them from their homes. A person who fails to comply “shall be cut off from Israel.”
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