Matzos -- kosher for Passover?

Matza is the substitute for bread during the Jewish holiday of Passover, when eating chametz—bread and leavened products—is not allowed. Eating matza on the night of the seder is considered a positive mitzvah, i.e., a commandment. In the context of the Passover seder meal, certain restrictions additional to the chametz prohibitions are to be met for the matza to be considered "mitzva matza", that is, matza that meets the requirements of the positive commandment to eat matza at the seder.

At the Passover seder, it is customary to eat matza made of flour and water only. Matza containing eggs, wine, or fruit juice in addition to water is not acceptable for use at the seder. Matza made with these items without the use of water is acceptable during the remaining days of the holiday, although most strictly Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews will not eat this kind of matza at all during Passover.

There are five grains that may not be used during Passover in any form except for matzoh.

1. Wheat

2. Barley

3. Spelt

4. Rye

5. Oats

Your Matzos are likely to be made with one of the 5 above

The care taken to make sure the flour, or Matzah Meal doesn't get touched by water more than ten minutes before it's actually cooked, and that no OTHER chametz has touched it.

Why are you buying Matzah, anyway? Unless you are buying it for Orthodox people to share during the week, it probably doesn't matter.

PS, my mother always swore you couldn't tell that the stuff you bought was FRESH (back in the day before expiry dates, anyway), so, you HAD to have the Passover stuff (cause there is ALWAYS a date on it) to make sure it's fresh, but where I live, the Passover matzah runs out, and desperate people use up the non-passover products by the end of the holiday, so you know it's pretty fresh, too.

Flour becomes unacceptable for Passover if allowed to become leaven (rise). Passover matzos are baked within 18 minutes of flour touching water and do not contain salt. The machinery is also cleaned every 18 minutes. Non-Passover matza is not subjected to this care and the machinery is not cleaned every 18 minutes.

See Passover primer http://www.aish.com/h/pes/mm/48972121.ht%E2%80%A6

For FREE lectures, videos and MP3's on the true laws, meaning and spirituality of Passover:

aish.com

ohr.edu

ou.org

gottorah.com

simpletoremember.com

Matzos Crackers

To be certain that a product is Kosher for Passover, it must have rabbinical certification. Otherwise it is possible that it contains chametz ingredients, or traces of chametz if it was processed on the same equipment as chametz products. Thus, unless a product is certified "Kosher for Passover," we consider it chametz, and make sure not to have it in our possession on Passover. You can read more about Chametz and Kosher for Passover at http://www.chabad.org/1742

The difference is rabbinical supervision.

Kosher for Passover foods undergo stringent inspection by specific rabbis', who guarantee that (in this instance you ask) the flour did not have a chance to rise (leaven) longer than 18 minutes before it was baked into matza.

Sorry, oats aren't kosher for passover. But if you combine apples, sugar, and cinnamon, then top them with a butter-brown sugar-walnut mix and bake it you'll have a nice kosher for passover desert.

Dutch ovens