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> Can any Jewish reader help here - what sort of bread would you eat
> just before Passover? What are the restrictions on it - Christian
> wafers seem to be unleavened. (In case you aren't aware of the
> connection Jesus had his last supper just before Passover, which is
> why the Christian Easter keeps in step with it - although the exact
> rules for determining the date are slightly different I think)
 
This is a perennial problem.  To be "kosher for Pesach", bread needs to
be more than just unleavened.  The strict rabbinical rule is that
there may be no more than 18 minutes from the time the moisture hits
the flour until it hits the hot oven, someone having discovered
centuries  ago that natural fermentation (wild yeast in the air) can
start after 18 minutes.  Also, to be kosher, any bread has to have
"challah taken", which is a matter of a small piece of dough pinched
off and used as an offering.  (I'm not sure how this is done these
days, whether it is incinerated or what, but I think it at least
requires an ordained rabbi to bless it.)
 
All of the gluten-containing grains are prohibited over Passover,
unless they are first made into matzoh.  As far as other grains
that constitute "bread", it varies according to
whether you come from Ashkenazy (East European) or Sephardic (Spanish
and Mediterranean) Jewish family.  Ashkenazy tradition prohibits
eating any form of rice or corn during Passover, for instance; the
only starches tend to be matzoh, things made with matzoh, and potatoes.
Sephardim permit rice and corn during Passover, as not falling under
the "leavened grains" restriction.  I am assuming that therefore
anything prohibited during Passover would make an acceptable "bread"
if there were a way to bake it properly.
 
Of course, this is all critical to the Orthodox Jews, but less so
to those of us who practice Reform Judaism, since we are more
comfortable with adapting old traditions to modern context.  Some
five or six years ago, I recall reading on soc.culture.judaism of
a rabbi somewhere on the East Coast who was making wheat-free
matzohs (but out of oat flour, if memory serves) that were
rabbinically correct and Kosher for Pesach.  But the pointer
was out of date even then.
 
There's a more-or-less blanket rule in Judaism that one is excused
from doing "required" mitzvot (commandments) in cases where life
or health is seriously jeopardized.  (For example, diabetics and
hypoglycemics are excused from the 24 hour fast of Yom Kippur,
although to keep in the spirit of things, we generally eat very
plainly and just enough to stay healthy.)
 
It would be wonderful to have a source of Kosher for Pesach
rice-flour matzoh, but I don't know of any.  Anything I could
whip up in my oven (even assuming I manage to do it inside of
18 minutes) wouldn't be really proper, even if it would make me
feel less selfsconscious during the Seder.  Ditto rice cakes, rice
crackers, and GF communion wafers.  (Although I wonder if these
could be blessed for the purpose?)
 
I wonder if there's a rabbi who would undertake this if s/he
knew there was a market for it?  I'll cross-post this to the Liberal
Judaism mailing list to see what the current situation on this is.
 
Andrea Frankel, [log in to unmask]  (note new address!)   (916) 274-1921
Snail: Flying Dog Ranch, 11864 Deer Park Dr., Nevada City, CA 95959-8921
"...wake now! discover that YOU are the song that the morning brings..."