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Is there a difference between hand-made and machine-made matza? The process of making matza has undergone major changes over the past 200 years, amid great controversy. In many ways, today’s matza market reflects uniquely diverse ways of producing this ancient food. The Torah (Deuteronomy 16:3) conjoins the prohibition of consuming hametz (leavened bread) on Pessah with the commandment to consume matza, the unleavened bread whose meagerness and “incompleteness” recalls the impoverished slavery of the Israelites and their hasty exodus from Egypt. The sages derived from this conjoining that matza and hametz share similar physical qualities. Matza became defined as grain flour which, when combined with water, could become hametz, but was made in a manner that prevents it from fermenting. As such, the flour in matza may only come from rye, oats, barley, spelt and wheat (Pessahim 35a). While wheat was historically given preference (OC 453:1), companies have recently produced…

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You may have read reports that opponents of a new Museum of Tolerance being built in Jerusalem, having lost unanimously in the Israel Supreme Court, are now taking their case to the United Nations, accusing the Wiesenthal Center of building a museum on the historic Mamilla Muslim Cemetery.  Hypocrisy and liesOpponents would have you believe that bulldozers are preparing to desecrate ancient Muslim tombstones and historic markers. The museum is not being built on the Mamilla Cemetery, but actually on an adjacent 3-acre site where, for a half-century, hundreds of people of all faiths have parked in a three-level underground structure without any protest. Below is a news article from the November 22, 1945 Palestine Post newspaper, culled from the archives of Tel Aviv University, detailing Arab plans for the Mamilla Cemetery. The article substantiates much of what Israel's Supreme Court said in its recent ruling: That the Mamilla Cemetery was regarded…

The winter 2010 edition of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s P2 View newsletter is now available at http://www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/p2/newsletter/p2viewwinter10.pdfWhat’s Inside? Here are some of the topics: Turf's up! Learn about DEP's organic land care program for municipal playing fields. Find out how one Manchester couple is getting "smart" about their electric bills. What's in your recycling bin? Find out what's new in Connecticut’s recycling universe. Planning on doing some home remodeling? Find out where to get inexpensive and unique building materials! Water, water everywhere at St. Vincent's Hospital, but nary a bottle to be found! Eartha tackles a smelly problem.Thanks for your interest in pollution prevention!