AND all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
So wrote Shakespeare. It may have been some such thought which led Moses, the great leader of the Israelites, to perceive a most fruitful spiritual lesson residing in the humble task of breadmaking. According to the custom of the Hebrews, before the fresh flour was added to the water in a kneading trough fermented dough from a previous baking was added as a leaven, thus producing a raised or leavened bread. Sometimes the fermented dough was hidden in the fresh flour and kneaded along with it.
Leaven as causing fermentation and corruption was early regarded as unclean, and Moses forbade its use for certain feasts which he directed his followers to observe. Later Christ Jesus used the figure of leaven to show the evil influence of the corrupt doctrine of the Pharisees and Sad-ducees. Mary Baker Eddy repeats the same warnings in her writings.
