Matzo has many names. The Bread of affliction. The Bread of Humility. The Bread of Healing. The Bread of Freedom. Not one of them is The Bread of Blood. Had you been alive in England in say, 1255 would you have scoffed, pointed a finger as we were wrongly, horribly accused? As we cried out in our innocence? As our bodies hung from the branches of trees? And today, in 2024, do you believe that we are the new Nazis? That we have perpetrated the genocide of an entire people? That we deserve to have our infants burned and beheaded? Our women raped? Our elderly and our children taken captive? Do you believe it is just that we are singled out as the one nation on Earth most responsible for every evil? That the unceasing enmity meted out against us in the court of world opinion is justified? Or could the Blood Libels, those of the past and those of the very present be a response to something terribly wrong with the world itself? Could they be a reaction to a historic, global incredulity as to how a nation so small, so dispersed, so powerless could —for twenty-seven hundred years of exile— not only not disappear, but succeed so profoundly? And might that fact give credence to a niggling thought? A feverish and insatiable jealousy, which has doubtless flickered in the hearts and minds of countless billions throughout the eons? I Cannot Countenance Your Very Existence. Will you now come again to rail against us? Not only in the streets of our cities, in the hallways of our universities, but on our very doorsteps? Will you rattle our windows? Shout out your lungs? Will you deign to frighten us all — men, women and children — with your hatred, your ignorance, and your vast numbers? Our matzo was never ruddy brown. Never did it contain a trace of blood. It was always only flour and water. Flour and water. Only flour and water. The Blood Libels were a lie! (Need that be stated? I believe it does.) A lie that tragically, has never gone away. And before I forget, matzo has one more name. The Bread of Faith For over three thousand and three hundred years, that faith has been our sustenance.
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Once again, Peter, you knocked the ball out of the park. As to the Poetry folks' nonsense, sigh...heavy sigh. They don't want to be confused by the facts... May you be abundantly blessed for speaking emes...
OMG, that is so awful. Where the heck do people get these weird ideas? We always ate matzohs in our home and we loved them! I still love them. HAMAS is so devious and sneaky and too many people don't realize that.