Rolling in the Dough      

IF you close your eyes for a moment and imagine the Pesach our ancestors enjoyed, the picture that comes to mind is one of singular family unity. For them, the holiday’s primary focus was a mitzvah that was as organic as it was critical; the Korban Pesach couldn’t be commercialized even if you tried.

Those days are over. Pesach is still a family time, but the tableware is ordered on Amazon, and the matzah, maror, and charoses can be picked up in any of the dozen grocery stores within a five-minute radius. Is there any way to recapture that sense of joint family effort in handcrafting the Yom Tov’s focal mitzvah?

There is. Believe it or not, do it yourself matzah baking has come into vogue. And while the thought of installing a burning furnace in your own backyard might sound intimidating, a motivated group of forward thinkers have gotten past the initial fear and are rolling up their sleeves and getting to work, all while their wives watch from the kitchen window.

In a recent seminar, a group of matzah enthusiasts, led by longtime matzah expert Rav Dovid Leibish Bochner, got together to discuss ideas, share trade secrets, and innovate new ones.