Matza Prices Higher This Year Amid COVID Tests For Gentile Blood

“We can’t just use the blood of goyim indiscriminately as we used to, not in the current epidemiological environment.”

Jerusalem, March 17 – Consumers beginning their acquisitions for the upcoming Passover festival have noticed an uptick in expenses stemming from an additional step necessary to produce the unleavened bread associated with the observance, namely the need to test a key ingredient in the bread – the blood of a non-Jewish child – for a pathogen that has infected more than hundred million people worldwide and killed more than two million.

A survey of retail grocery establishments and customers indicates a rise in matza prices of up to five percent over last year, an increase that manufacturers attribute to the need to test for SARS-CoV-2 all the gentile blood that goes into the product. Consumer groups lamented the change, while industrial groups suggested the government help them defray the expenses to help households afford what already poses a formidable economic challenge each year.

“It’s unfortunate the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Employment failed to foresee this development,” remarked Sarah Ofim, a representative of the Bakers’ Association. “But we can’t just use the blood of goyim indiscriminately as we used to, not in the current epidemiological environment, even if the baking process would neutralize all the viruses anyway. People are already crazy when it comes to the stringencies of this holiday, and reason plays only a small part in their concerns.” She cited the common practices of scouring every household surface to remove any traces of leavened grain; the custom, especially among Hasidim, to refrain from eating wet matza, lest any unbaked portions then become leavened; and the prevalent practice among Jews of Ashkenazi heritage to eat matza only if it has been baked into a stiff, crisp, cracker-like bread even though ancient sources attest to the bread’s texture as a flexible flatbread.

“We see that the Torah itself takes extra precautions with leavened grain on Passover,” explained Chief Rabbi David Lau. “For example, beyond forbidding the consumption of hametz, or even benefiting from it – which occurs in only a handful of other prohibitions such as idolatry, and cooked meat-dairy mixtures – mere possession of hametz is banned during Passover. Successive generations have embraced this approach with further restrictions, both to protect against violation and to demonstrate attachment to, and affection for, the commandment and its spirit. Testing the goy-blood for COVID is just one more instance of extra devotion to the mitzvah, even though science might deem it unnecessary.”

Consumers by and large appear resigned to the price increase, noting that lockdown restrictions over the last year have sharply cut the availability of Palestinian children to kidnap and drain for blood.

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