Chametz, also Chometz, Ḥametz, Ḥameṣ, Ḥameç and other spellings transliterated from Hebrew: חָמֵץ / חמץ (IPA: [χaˈmets]), are leavened foods that are forbidden on the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to Jewish law, Jews may not own, eat or benefit from chametz during Passover. This law appears several times in the Torah; the punishment for eating chametz on Passover is the divine punishment of kareth (“spiritual excision”), one of the severest levels of punishment in Judaism. For non-Jews, this punishment would be understood as the equivalent of eternal damnation.
Chametz is a product that is both made from one of five types of grain and has been combined with water and left to stand raw for longer than eighteen minutes and becomes leaven.
The word chametz is derived from the common Semitic root Ḥ-M-Ṣ, relating to bread, leavening, and baking. It is cognate to the Aramaic חמע, “to ferment, leaven” and the Arabic ??? ḥamuḍa, “to be sour,” “to become acidic”.
To continue reading this Bible article, click here.
Author: Wikipedia
Keywords: Unleavened bread, Leaven, Yeast, Yeast bread, Leavened bread, Matzo, Matzoh, Bread, Chamatz, Chametz, Chometz, Bedikat chametz, Bedikas chametz, Bread burning, Bread on fire, Purge of leaven, Purging leaven
Bible reference(s): Exodus 12:8, Exodus 12:15, Exodus 12:17-20, Exodus 12:39, Exodus 13:3, Exodus 13:6-7, Exodus 23:15, Exodus 34:25, Deuteronomy 16:3-4, Deuteronomy 16:16, 2 Chronicles 30:13, 2 Chronicles 30:21, 2 Chronicles 35:17, Ezra 6:22, Ezekiel 45:21, Matthew 16:6, Matthew 16:11, Matthew 13:33, Matthew 26:17, Mark 8:15, Mark 14:1, Mark 14:12, Luke 12:1, Luke 22:1, Luke 22:7, Acts 12:3, Acts 20:6, 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Galatians 5:9, 1 Esdras 1:19, 1 Esdras 7:14
Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Chametz,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.