Against the Grain--and With Tradition

For members of Ventura County’s Jewish community, this morning’s toast will be more than just breakfast food.

It will also mark one of their last opportunities to savor sliced bread before sundown, when the weeklong Passover holiday begins, and observant Jews--following tradition--abstain from eating most grain products.

For carb lovers, the week can seem almost interminable.

“I know people who go berserk,” said Yakov Latowicz, rabbi at Chabad of Ventura, a synagogue and Jewish outreach center. “By the end of Passover, they’re begging for a bagel.”

Based on a passage in the Book of Exodus, modern Jews temporarily eliminate bread with yeast from their diets to commemorate their ancestors’ freedom from slavery in ancient Egypt. Matzo came about because the Jews fleeing Egypt did not have time to add leavening to the bread they were making. Centuries ago, that mandate was extended to include most grains, including staples such as pasta, crackers and products made from corn, Latowicz said.

As a substitute, the observant rely on matzo, a cracker made of unleavened flour and water that no matter how it’s served is never as satisfying as regular bread.

“It’s like cement in your stomach,” said Shimon Paskow, rabbi at Temple Etz Chaim in Thousand Oaks. “But it’s supposed to be different. It’s supposed to remind us of the harshness of slavery.”

Matzo plays a central role in tonight’s holiday meal known as a Seder, a ritual dinner during which participants recount the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt.

And throughout the week, matzo is ground up, fried or otherwise prepared for traditional Passover dishes, such as matzo ball soup and sponge cake.

For weeks, local Jews have been preparing for the holiday by cutting back on their purchases of bread products and stocking up on Passover goods such as matzo meal, kosher wine and coconut macaroons.

Thousand Oaks resident Linda Leon said she stopped buying pastas and crackers in January.

“I wanted to make sure mostly everything was used up,” said Leon, a member of Temple Etz Chaim. “I don’t want to waste things.”

Unopened cake mixes and condiments containing corn syrup, including catsup and barbecue sauce, are stored in a special pantry that she has sealed off with tape. And like others who strictly follow the holiday’s dietary laws, she has brought out her special plates and pots that she uses to prevent any intermingling of Passover foods with bread products.

While Leon was not raised in an observant home, she said she has grown accustomed to the efforts she makes each year to help her family follow the tradition.

“It seems normal to me now,” said Leon, a mother of two.

Lauree Feigenbaum, another Temple Etz Chaim member, said she follows Passover customs out of a respect for the history of the Jews, who for thousands of years have abstained from eating leavened bread during the seven-day holiday, which many people observe for an extra day to guarantee compliance.

“We’ve had this straight line of people who have observed these rules,” Feigenbaum said. “Who am I to break them?”

Rabbi Lisa Hochberg-Miller of Ventura’s Temple Beth Torah said Passover is the most observed of all the Jewish holidays.

“It’s the one Jewish ritual that people participate in,” she said. “The whole theme of slavery to freedom is so embedded in Jewish liturgy.”

Hochberg-Miller also said the story of Passover always feels contemporary, because somewhere, someone is suffering.

“What is happening in the world is a backdrop to the Passover story,” she said. “Last year, it was Yugoslavia and the atrocities of ethnic cleansing.”

Hochberg-Miller said the assortment of kosher goods at local supermarkets keeps her and her family satisfied, and she doesn’t miss the bread too much, except at one meal.

“The hardest part is getting around breakfast,” she said. “You just get so used to toast, oatmeal, pancakes and waffles.”