Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] The Pesach prohibition - baked, not leavened bread

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] The Pesach prohibition - baked, not leavened bread
  • Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 23:02:03 -0500

The word chametz refers to fermentation, not hot and pressed.

Chometz is vinegar

Chamutzim are pickles

Chamutz is sour

Etc.

"hometz" wine - is just simply grapes that have fermented, ie; wine, vs. grape juice.

Why do so many people think that they need to "improve" on, or change the real meanings of the Torah???

Do you think it makes you smart to make new things up?

Shoshanna



The hametz prohibited on Pesach seems to mean baked bread. The idea of leavening is derivative because leaven was often added before baking.

The word hametz consists of root cells hm and mtz, hot and pressed.
Confirms Hos7:4: bad baker doesn't watch the dough from kneading until it becomes hmtz in the hot oven. Dough is baked in the oven, not leavened.

Nazirite should abstain from hometz wine. Hometz, presumably, is something that makes something else hametz. Wine - unlike beer - was not used for leavening the bread. Like another word for wine, hmr (hm-mr, hot and rising), hmtz here means "hot and pressing", and refers to agitating effect of wine. That makes sense of the prohibition.
Hometz similarly means "violent" in Ps71:4, certainly not "leavened."
The difference between Lev7:12 and 7:13 is now clear: halot matzot (pressed cakes) could be oiled, but halot lehem hametz (baked bread) are soft and break when oiled.

Reading hametz as "baked" correlates with the tradition. Hebrews in Egypt prepared the last bread at least as usual, more probably - as festive bread to accompany the meat sacrifice. They had no reason to prepare the dough without leaven. They left in haste, and didn't have time to bake the bread. They ate the pressed sun-dried cakes, a normal food even now in traditional Egyptian villages.

Please share your opinions about that suggestion. You can read it in more details at http://vadimcherny.org/judaism/custom_pesach.htm

Vadim Cherny
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page