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Almost Passover
Mar. 25th, 2021 04:05 pmIt's almost Passover, and that has me thinking about the whole story, and the way we tell it. "They didn't have time to let the bread rise" we say, "and so they baked unleavened cakes".
For children who have only ever had bread from the grocery store, that means about as much as "once upon a time". But for those who have seen their parents bake bread, it can give a framework. Bread made with modern dried yeast rises in an hour or so. It usually gets mixed, kneaded, rises once, gets shaped, rises again, and gets backed. All that takes between four and six hours, depending on how fast the baker is.
Using a sourdough type starter, which is what the Israelites would have had in a time before commercially packaged yeast, ovens with thermostats, and all the other things we take for granted in a first world country, they would mix the dough and knead it with some dried dough from the previous day's bread, then set it aside to get light and puffy. That's a slower process, but it would still be ready to shape in about six hours. Shaping flat rounds and baking them on a hot stone doesn't take long at all; maybe 3-5 minutes per portion.
So when they didn't have time to let their bread rise, it means that they had to leave in under six hours. Whatever stage the dough was at, that was what was going to be baked. And by extension, they didn't have time to plan anything else, either. All they could do was grab whatever food they had - including that hastily baked dough - and whatever was of value that was easily portable, and GO. No looking for a favorite pot lent to a neighbor. No time to let a child say goodbye to a playmate. No taking apart a loom in anticipation of making fabric somewhere else. Grab your family, grab food, grab weapons if you have them, grab items you can put in a basket, and run. It isn't quite as extreme as fleeing a wildfire, but it isn't far off.
And what makes that real and immanent for me is that I bake bread, and I know how long it takes to rise.
For children who have only ever had bread from the grocery store, that means about as much as "once upon a time". But for those who have seen their parents bake bread, it can give a framework. Bread made with modern dried yeast rises in an hour or so. It usually gets mixed, kneaded, rises once, gets shaped, rises again, and gets backed. All that takes between four and six hours, depending on how fast the baker is.
Using a sourdough type starter, which is what the Israelites would have had in a time before commercially packaged yeast, ovens with thermostats, and all the other things we take for granted in a first world country, they would mix the dough and knead it with some dried dough from the previous day's bread, then set it aside to get light and puffy. That's a slower process, but it would still be ready to shape in about six hours. Shaping flat rounds and baking them on a hot stone doesn't take long at all; maybe 3-5 minutes per portion.
So when they didn't have time to let their bread rise, it means that they had to leave in under six hours. Whatever stage the dough was at, that was what was going to be baked. And by extension, they didn't have time to plan anything else, either. All they could do was grab whatever food they had - including that hastily baked dough - and whatever was of value that was easily portable, and GO. No looking for a favorite pot lent to a neighbor. No time to let a child say goodbye to a playmate. No taking apart a loom in anticipation of making fabric somewhere else. Grab your family, grab food, grab weapons if you have them, grab items you can put in a basket, and run. It isn't quite as extreme as fleeing a wildfire, but it isn't far off.
And what makes that real and immanent for me is that I bake bread, and I know how long it takes to rise.
