More specifically, can you use a sourdough starter, or allow it to live in your fridge through the spring Holy Days?
There are a few bakers in the Church who have received sourdough starters and have started to make sourdough bread. A sourdough starter is essentially flour, water and salt. Once these ingredients are added together it begins to ferment. There is natural wild yeast that is on ground flour that begins the process of fermentation when it is combined with the water and salt. The longer a starter is allowed to grow and be used, it gains flavor characteristics, and older starters are prized as having a fuller flavor and stronger binding properties.
Some of the oldest actively used sourdough starters are over a century old, with notable examples including a 120-year-old Yukon Gold Rush starter and San Francisco starters dating back to the mid-19th century. Many family-kept starters are 50–100 years old. Recently, there was even an experimental, 4,500-year-old yeast from Egyptian pottery that has been revived and used to bake bread.
When we look at the properties of sourdough starter, while no commercial yeast is added, the key point is that the starter is fermenting and growing, which gets to the heart of the matter.
During biblical times, they did not have the commercial rising agents we commonly use today (baking powder, baking soda, yeast, etc.). What they used during that time was a piece of dough retained from a previous batch which had fermented. This was then used to mix into a new batch to start the leavening process. The Israelites were deeply entrenched in Egypt. The Egyptians were advanced bakers and beer makers. So it goes to reason that the Israelites were well versed in how to make bread.
In the ancient Hebrew and Greek when a substance was added to dough or liquids to cause fermentation, especially a portion of fermenting dough preserved for baking purposes, it was specified by the Hebrew word seʼorʹ (“sourdough”; Exodus 12:15) or by the Greek word zyʹme (“leaven”; Luke 13:21). A leavened thing is designated by the Hebrew word cha·metsʹ or Chametz (חָמֵץ) such as found in Leviticus 2:11. In Jewish law and tradition, it refers to any food product derived from five specific grains—wheat, barley, rye, oats, or spelt—that has come into contact with water and been allowed to ferment or “rise”. Under most halakhic (Jewish law) opinions, grain mixed with water becomes chametz if it is left unbaked for longer than 18 minutes.
We are informed that Jewish law (Halacha) strictly forbids owning, using, or benefiting from sourdough starter (se’or) during the Days of Unleavened Bread, as it is considered chametz (leaven). Because it is a fermented flour-and-water mixture, it must be removed from the home. As we will discuss, we agree with that conclusion, but not with the Jewish practice of some to sell it to a non-Jewish person and buy it back afterward or to give it to a non-observant friend to care for during the week and to receive it back afterward. Rather, we agree with most observers who choose to throw away their starter before the Holy Days of Unleavened Bread.
When we look at what God commanded the Israelites when they were leaving Egypt, He wanted them to make their bread without allowing it the opportunity to rise. In Exodus 12:14-20, the specific commands were to remove leaven from their houses and they were allowed to only make that which could be eaten, again showing that no bread was to be left to rise and ferment.
Further on in the Israelite story, they are reminded of why they were continuing this tradition (one that is still relevant for us today). In Deuteronomy 16:3-4, they were instructed again as to the reasons why they must eat unleavened bread: “You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days…”
When Israel left Egypt, they did so with haste. They were leaving the sin-ridden Egyptians and they were to do so with an eye toward their ongoing journey. They were supposed to be looking to God who brought them out of Egypt, out of sin. They were removed from the slavery of Egypt. Today, while we do not live in literal slavery, many are still enslaved by sin and its power. Those who ate leavened bread during the Days of Unleavened Bread were to be cut off from the congregation (Exodus 12:15). The same principle applies today. Those who persist in sin without repentance ultimately separate themselves from the Body of Christ (the Church), and more importantly, from God.
As we know from the Old and New Testaments, leavening was disallowed during the Unleavened Bread Days. During the Old Testament, we know that leavening was often associated with corruption, impurity and sin. Offerings made to God in the Old Testament were oftentimes not to be made with leavening (Leviticus chapters 2, 6 & 7; Exodus 29:2; Numbers 6:15). (Please see our free booklet The Sacrificial System and the Tabernacle in the Wilderness for more information). In the New Testament, unleavened bread took on additional significance in the context of the Lord’s Supper. During the Last Supper, Jesus broke unleavened bread and gave it to His disciples, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). Christ used the symbol of unleavened bread and wine to foreshadow the Sacrifice that He would give of Himself for the redemption of humanity.
In the New Testament, leaven is used metaphorically to represent the pervasive nature of sin and false teachings. Many times Christ warned the disciples about the “leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees,” referring to their hypocritical and erroneous teachings (Matthew 16:6)—showing how easy it is to believe something so dogmatically while being utterly wrong. Similarly, the apostle Paul used leaven as a metaphor for sin in the Church, urging believers to “purge out the old leaven” to become a new, unleavened lump (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). That is to be free from the fermentation of sin. We must do a thorough search of our hearts and minds, asking God for help in this manner as well. Paul warns us that “many are weak and sick” because they have not properly discerned “the Lord’s body” (1 Corinthians 11:27-33).
In the prophet Amos’s day, Christ warned Israel in Amos 4:5 about what they were doing in transgressing His laws and commandments: “‘Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, Proclaim and announce the freewill offerings; For this you love, You children of Israel!’ Says the Lord God.” God here is telling them that their worship of other gods was a transgression against Him. They might as well offer leavened bread on the altar (which was disallowed) because they were actively committing idolatry, so that their religious services had become useless.
While Christ mentioned a few times that leaven can be likened to the pervasive nature of sin and false doctrine (Matthew 16:6), He also made a very interesting statement about how the Kingdom of God should grow! Quoting from Luke 13:20-21: “And again He said, ‘To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.’” This is the proper way to think about God’s ways working through us. We should not be compromising or sinning, which will grow, but rather grow by showing and manifesting good fruits in order to qualify for the Kingdom of God. It is a way that transforms our whole lives—just as how the world will be transformed when Christ returns and ushers in the Rule or Kingdom of God.
As we prepare for the Passover evening and the upcoming Days of Unleavened Bread, we should take note of our spiritual condition and ensure that we are entering these days with the right frame of mind. It is then that we can keep these days as the Israelites did with great gladness, rejoicing and joyfulness (2 Chronicles 30:21; Ezra 6:22). We are looking forward to the time when this world will be ruled differently. The Days of Unleavened Bread show us that we need to continually be looking at our lives and seeing where we can improve, and how we can incorporate more of God’s ways and allow that new lump to form, as Paul mentioned.
In regards to the active sourdough starters in our homes, based on Scripture and our understanding, as described herein, we conclude that these types of starters are to be removed from our homes. Let us also ensure that we keep the coming spring Holy Days in a perfect state of mind, having worked to clear up our houses not only from literal leaven during that time, but also, by removing any lingering issues we may see in ourselves, so that we have the proper lump growing within ourselves.
Lead Writer: Kalon Mitchell