Peace out, bread. Hello matzah!

I love bread. I love the way it warms up my stomach. I love the way it hugs the contents of my sandwich. It provides the tuna, lettuce and tomato with a tasty armor and adds an element of comfort to every meal.

If it weren’t for bread, peanut butter and jelly would have to break up, the complimentary breadbaskets at restaurants would be empty and Jared the Subway Guy would still be Jared the 425-pound man. (Come on, you know he wouldn’t have committed to a diet plan that lacked fresh-baked bread twice a day. Sure, he was determined. But a guy that big doesn’t go anorexic overnight.)

I have an appreciation for bread. It makes me happy. In fact, it has even been proven to make everyone happy.

As we all know — and to my dismay — bread has carbohydrates. Though carbohydrates have a bad reputation, thanks to diets such as the South Beach Diet, they actually help increase concentrations of serotonin in our blood. Low levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter, have been found to have a link to depression.

Unfortunately, low levels of confidence about my body after devouring seven or eight breadbaskets have also been linked to depression (and hours at the gym). But that’s not why I’m avoiding bread.

I’m currently observing Passover, a Jewish holiday that prohibits me from consuming “chometz.”

Chometz is described in the Torah as any food containing flour and water that has been given time to ferment. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, bread.

Jews observe this law in commemoration of the story of Passover. As it is written in the Torah, the Hebrews had no time to wait for their bread to rise during their escape from Egypt, where they were enslaved by the Pharaoh.

For that reason, Jews don’t consume leavened bread for the entire duration of Passover. Instead, we eat matzah — unleavened bread. If you haven’t tasted matzah before, let’s just say it certainly doesn’t warm up my stomach.

It provides my taste buds with the sensation they would get from biting into the wicker part of the breadbasket.

I have temporarily given up bread, and my stomach has been giving me attitude about it ever since the first seder on Monday night.

I typically indulge my stomach with toast and jam every morning. Apparently the matzah and kosher-for-Passover fruit spread aren’t doing the trick.  

In the midst of complaining about my breakfast, I realized that observing Passover is my choice. I could run to Scholar’s Inn Bakehouse right now and order a delicious croissant that would make me forget why I ever left bread in the first place.

There are 613 commandments listed in the Torah. I probably don’t follow most of them. But there is something about this holiday that I appreciate. I enjoy hearing the story, and I recognize its symbolism in the observance of Passover.

I might have a passion for bread, but I can give it up for a week in the interest of defending a tradition.
 

E-mail: jzaslow@indiana.edu