Passover Gifts - Now This One Meaning You Don t Want To Miss

What is the purpose of the the Matzah Cover and Matzah Plate?

To understand the purpose of the Matzah Cover and Matzah plate, one must first consider the meaning of Matzah.For those of you who do not know, Matzah is the only type of bread which Jews can eat during Passover and it is made from flour and water.

On the night that the pharaoh let the children of Israel go, the children of Isreal had no time to bake their bread. They had to get out of Egypt as fast as they could before the pharaoh changed his mind (again), so they could not bake their bread.

If you know anything about bread then you know the result of not baking your bread, the yeast in the bread does not get an opportunity to rise. So here you have the children of Israel fleeing Egypt in the broiling sun with the bread that has not yet risen.

If you know anything about the broiling sun when it makes extended contact with bread then you would know that the bread slowly turned into flat unleavened bread. And as the Children of Israel had no other food, they ate this flat unleavened bread.

Now fast forward many generations and you will notice that all Jews celebrating Passover eat this Matzah. The Jews eat this Matzah in memory of all of those who ate the Matzah on their way out of Egypt thousands of years ago.

Called the "bread of affiliation" Matzah is eaten during the Seder feast. 3 portions of Matzah placed are placed on Matzah plate which is then placed next to the Seder plate. The three Matzah are specifically in place to remember the Isrealite, Levite and Kohanim tribe of Jews from the past.

A Matzah cover then comes into use in covering the Matzah while it is not in use. A cloth is placed over the Matzah plate and matzah and then the required Matzah cover is placed on top.

At a point in the meal, the seder leader takes and hides one portion of Matzah for the children to find in a sort of game. The remaining Matzah is then eaten a few more times, by itself and/or mixed with other foods during specific sections of the seder feast.

*Most Matzah covers have threes openings which can also be called pockets. Each pocket is used for one of the three Matzah used in the Passover Seder feast.

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