Chabad House Lubavitch of CNY will bring the Holiday of Passover to life this year with its Model Matzah Bakery from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 2, at Wegmans in DeWitt.

The Model Matzah Bakery is modeled after the famous Hand Shmura Matzah Bakeries in Brooklyn and Jerusalem. Children and adults will have a chance to mix, knead roll and bake their own Matzah.

Shmura, which means “watched” in Hebrew, is used to describe the round handmade Matzahs in which the wheat is carefully watched and protected from any contact with water from the moment of harvest on, until the Matzahs are ready to be kneaded into dough and baked. The wheat is only harvested on a sunny day and before it is ground into flour, the mill stones are cleaned thoroughly.

Special care is taken during its transportation, and when it gets to the bakery the flour is kept in a special dry room. The rationale is that any contact with water before the flour is ready to be mixed and made into dough could cause leavening in the wheat and disqualify its use for Passover. In ordinary matzah, the wheat is watched only from the time of milling. These Shmura matzahs are baked entirely by hand under intense scrutiny.

This year, Chabad has added actual wheat grinding to the Model Matzah Bakery. There will also be a Model Seder Table on display with many details and insights into the Seder. Rabbi Rapoport will be available to answer questions.

The Model Matzah Bakery is made possible by a grant from the Syracuse Jewish federation.

For more information, Call Rabbi Yaakov Rapoport at 727-0973.