Signs of Pesach

Today I got free food.  Why?  Because we are the known goyim in our apartment building.  Pesach (Passover for you non-Hebrew speakers) is upon us and all good Jews are removing all traces of leaven from their homes (and hey, instead of throwing it out, might as well give it to the poor-college-student-heathens in the building).

For us non-Jews this sounds like it should be a relatively easy process: dump the yeast (and maybe the baking soda and baking powder?), throw out any breads you might have hanging around, and you're good to go.  Apparently it's not quite that simple, as evidenced both by items given to us by our neighbors and items currently unavailable in Jewish grocery stories:
Cookies
Cake
Crackers (other than matza)
Tortillas
Pasta
Cereal (unless you buy kosher-for-passover cereal)
Flour

According to Wikipedia (and other sources I have read and heard from), Chametz/Leaven is defined as "a product that is (a) made from one of five types of grains, and (b) has been combined with water and left to stand for longer than eighteen minutes without being baked."  This is a Rabbinical definition, not given anywhere in the Bible.  Still, if that is the definition we operate under some of the discarded foods above make a little more sense.

With things like crackers, tortillas, and cereal, I suppose it would be easy enough if making them at home to insure that they were baked before 18 minutes passed, but, if they are purchased, one has no way of knowing how long they sat.

Pasta, though seeming unlikely to contain trace elements of yeast, is generally dried rather than baked...and that, I suppose, eliminates it.

The homemade cookies and cake are perhaps discounted because they include baking soda?  In reality, they are probably eliminated because, apparently, any sort of baked good containing those 5 grains and water, other than matza, is automatically eliminated.  Even those which would otherwise make the cut.  Who knows?  I, for one, am still confused by the distinctions.

I must admit, though, that I still have a hard time understanding why grocery stores don't carry flour.  After all, I'm pretty sure that flour is used to make matza.  Perhaps they are afraid that there will be a flood or a pipe will burst or something, and all the flour will get wet, and then, within the next 18 minutes, they will have chametz on their hands.

I guess I just won't be able to make my own matza this season.  Don't worry, though, I won't be matza-less.  Last week a nice Jewish man came and gave free matza to all the inhabitants of my apartment building.  I'm set.


//Please note that no offence is meant to Jews or their holiday practices.  As an outsider I find some of them
//quite humorous (especially when the Biblical basis and logic behind them are considered).  Still, I recognize
//that some of my holiday traditions probably appear just as ridiculous from the outside.  I mean, gifts in
//stocks on Christmas morning?  Where in the world did that tradition originate and how does it relate in
//any way to a baby in a manger?