>
>Wcsjohn wrote:
>
>> There is a very old strand of Christian thought that equates "leaven"
>> (biological raising agents, commercial yeast or SD) with "corruption" and
>those
>> who believe that association to be valid, will not eat bread raised by such
>a
>> leaven.
>
>It rather predates that by some centuries and involves a Jewish holiday
>where leavened products are not eaten. There are some differing
>opinions as to why, but one of the more mystical/mythical is having to
>do with anagrams and the shape of one of the letters ... wait, I wrote
>about this in a column, lemme look it up. Ah, here it is...
>""Matzo/matzah" and "chametz" are anagrams (MTZH/KHMTZ) but with one
>important difference. The Hebrew letter "hey," the last letter in
>matzo/matzah _breaks_ its left leg in "chametz" to become "chet" or the
>first letter of "chayt" or "sin." This tells us that sin is a broken
>act...."
>
>B/
>

Agreed,

The Passover dietary requirements do indeed predate and may well be the origin
of the Christian aversion to leaven.

I remember my Maternal Grandfather, who broke his Mother's heart by marrying a
Gentile, telling me of the, to an outsider, extraordinary precautions taken to
avoid fermented grains, during Passover.

John