A Mega Matzah Bake, coordinated by Chabad of the Lehigh Valley and the Jewish Community Center, took place March 18.

Some 100 children between the ages of 5 and 13 attended.

Rabbi Eli Strasberg from Philadelphia began the program by describing the reason for the celebration of Passover, which began March 30 with the First Seder.

The rabbi, who was dressed as a baker, stood in front of a Matzah Bakery and a brick oven to speak to the children.

For most of the program, the rabbi wore a chef’s hat, but when he spoke of the problems of the Jewish people in Egypt, he wore a headdress similar to the one the Pharoah, leader of the Egyptians, wore.

They were treated badly, so Moses led the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt.

The Jewish people had to leave in a hurry, so they had no time to allow the bread to rise and therefore, the matzah is unleavened bread.

The holiday seder tells the story of the Jews’ flight from Egypt where they were slaves.

Next the rabbi described how matzah is made starting with the wheat, which is used to make flour.

He had a boy as the “water boy” and a girl described as a “ flour girl” combining the flour and water. Then the dough was formed.

All the children stood at tables where they were given a matzah chef’s hat, some hand sanitizer and finally a small amount of dough.

They were told to roll out the dough with a bit of flour and then prick holes in the unbaked matzah.

The children waited in line to give their unbaked matzah to rabbi Strasberg to bake in the oven.

While the dough was baking, the children were given a drawing of a seder plate to decorate using sand art.

Finally, there was singing and eating of the matzah.

“This matzah the children made was not kosher for Passover, but mostly all that matzah was consumed immediately,” Rabbi Yaakov Halperin of the Chabad of the Lehigh Valley said. “So small boxes of matzah were given out that were kosher for Passover for them to take home.”

It was a wonderful program and the children enjoyed making their own matzah.