"Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day, you shall remove leaven from your houses…"
Exodus 12:15
The Jewish holiday of Passover, a seven (sometimes eight) day celebration of Jewish freedom from slavery, often begins with a thorough house cleaning and that is often be followed by the custom of Bedikat Chametz, the hunt for leaven — and it can be big fun for the kids.
God commands the Jews to have no leaven in their houses — anything that contains yeast or baking soda, for example. Leaven is the stuff that makes bread dough rise. Pancakes, waffles, cereals, cakes and bread are just some of the foods that contain leavening agents. And all must go for Passover, which begins at sundown April 15 in 2022.
To mark this tradition, families engage in the search for the leaven in the nighttime. In one method, parents secretly hide 10 pieces of bread (or cereal, for example). Kids are equipped with a big wooden spoon, a candle, a feather, and a bag. The kids search by candlelight in every nook and cranny for the hidden leaven. When they find it, they brush it onto the spoon with the feather and then deposit it into a bag.
The family then prays a renunciation of the leaven, saying that if any piece of leaven remains, it is unknown to them and is as dust.
The next day the bag with chametz (leaven) is burned and the house is ready for Passover.
