page_title: Matzo
hierarchical_section_title: Matzo
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of machine-made Shmura Matzo eaten during Passover week. Photo taken on April 12 2006 by Yoninah.
context_page_description: Matzo, matzah, or matza is an unleavened flatbread that is part of Jewish cuisine and forms an integral element of the Passover festival, during which chametz is forbidden.
  As the Torah recounts, God commanded the Jews to create this special unleavened bread. During Passover it is eaten as a flat, cracker-like bread or used in dishes as breadcrumbs and in the traditional matzo ball soup.
  Matzo that is kosher for Passover is limited in Ashkenazi tradition to plain matzo made from flour and water. The flour may be whole grain or refined grain, but must be either wheat, spelt, barley, rye, or oat. Some Sephardic communities allow matzos containing eggs and fruit juice to be used throughout the holiday.
  Passover and non-Passover matzo may be soft or crisp, but the crisp "cracker" type is available commercially in most locations. Soft matzo is made by hand, and is similar to pita.
context_section_description: Matzo, matzah, or matza (Yiddish: מצה‎ matsoh, Hebrew: מַצָּה‎ matsa; plural matzot; matzos of Ashkenazi Jewish dialect) is an unleavened flatbread that is part of Jewish cuisine and forms an integral element of the Passover festival, during which chametz (leaven and five grains that, per Jewish Law, can be leavened) is forbidden.
  As the Torah recounts, God commanded the Jews to create this special unleavened bread. During Passover it is eaten as a flat, cracker-like bread or used in dishes as breadcrumbs and in the traditional matzo ball soup.
  Matzo that is kosher for Passover is limited in Ashkenazi tradition to plain matzo made from flour and water.  The flour may be whole grain or refined grain, but must be either wheat, spelt, barley, rye, or oat. Some Sephardic communities allow matzos containing eggs and fruit juice to be used throughout the holiday.
  Passover and non-Passover matzo may be soft or crisp, but the crisp "cracker" type is available commercially in most locations.  Soft matzo is made by hand, and is similar to pita.
caption: Machine-made matzot from Jerusalem
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2013:03:29 15:00:09", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7375", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1755", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1136"}