Efrat – Rabbi Eases Restrictions of Kitniyot for Ashkenazi Jews

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    Efrat – Trying to ease the life of Ashkenazi Jews who observe the dietary laws of the upcoming Passover holiday, an American-born Orthodox rabbi recently issued a halakhic ruling expanding the menu of permitted food products during the weeklong holiday.

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    According to Ashkenazi custom, the consumption of legumes and other non-wheat grains, known as kitniyot, during Passover is forbidden because of a resemblance to hametz, leavened grain, which is strictly prohibited on the holiday. Since most Israeli Jews who observe the holiday’s dietary laws are of Sephardic descent, and thus do not have this custom, many kosher for Passover products in the country contain kitniyot, such as rice, corn and beans. In recent years, a growing number of Orthodox Jews – especially Western immigrants to Israel – have started rebelling against the kitniyot ban, arguing they are adapting to the Israel’s mainstream practice because the ban is a custom and not law.

    A few week’s ago, Rabbi Zvi Leshem, of Efrat, issued a ruling that it is permissible to consume products and dishes containing kitniyot, as long as they do not constitute the main ingredient and are not directly recognizable. His decision will help those who do not want to entirely abandon the tradition of avoiding kitniyot but have difficulties finding certain items – such as oil, mayonnaise or chocolate spreads – that do not contain kitniyot in their ingredients.

    “Some of those products that are labeled ‘for those who eat kitniyot only’ are permissible according to all opinions, since the ratio of kitniyot ingredients is less than 50 percent and they are therefore annulled in the majority of non-kitniyot ingredients,” writes Leshem, 54, who was ordained by the Chief Rabbinate and holds a PhD in Jewish philosophy from Bar-Ilan University. “Since only products are forbidden in which kitniyot constitute the main ingredient, many oils, cookies and dairy products containing kitniyot are completely permissible for Ashkenazim.” In addition, he permitted quinoa, the grain-like crop which is “a very new food” unknown to the sages who enacted the ban on kitniyot.

    “It is a mitzvah [commandment] to publicize this decision, which is based upon the traditional Halachic methodology of the great authorities throughout the generations, and not upon looking for unnecessary stringencies,” Leshem concludes.

    “I tried to show that certain things that people think are prohibited are really permitted,” Leshem, who lived in Cleveland and Indianapolis before he immigrated to Israel in 1979, told Anglo File this week. He said he used to avoid products labeled “for those who eat kitniyot only” for many years before looking into the matter.

    “It is very misleading, certainly for Anglo olim [immigrants] who are not used to the whole issue. The obvious thing that most of them do is avoid anything that says kitniyot. But that’s in many cases unnecessary.”

    More at Haaretz.com


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    69 Comments
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    mit-seichel
    mit-seichel
    12 years ago

    Reform Movement, circa 2011

    LiberalismIsADisease
    LiberalismIsADisease
    12 years ago

    I hope this guy gets a visit in his sleep from the great ashkenazi gedolim who assured kitniyos! Maybe that will wake him up?!

    To my s’fardi friends and you know who you are, you have a minhag to eat the stuff and that is perfectly fine. By all means, keep it up! Just remember to check each grain three times before eating it.

    curious
    curious
    12 years ago

    While Leshem might sound way off, he isn’t. There clearly is president for some of what he is saying. For example, The minhag of kitniyos was not enacted on extractions of kitniyos. 40 years ago almost everyone used canola oil. Additionally, quinoa is a non-rising protein/grain that the OU says to ask the opinion of your rabbi aboutas it may be permitted. The issur on corn is also questionable as the chachamim were not goizer on foods that didn’t exist in their part of the world. Jews did not ever see maze until about 400 years ago.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    12 years ago

    He is 100 percent correct. So many of these minhagim have no relevance to today’s world where people know what they are eating and “appearences” are not a concern since food labeling and information available on the internet as so accessible. Its not clear the ban on kitniyot was warranted in eastern europe and it certainly has no basis today.

    itzik18
    itzik18
    12 years ago

    while it is true that Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, poskenned the same as this (in our local yeshiva, they drink regular coke from all year round on Pesach because Rav Moshe said that it is muttar), however Chassidim and other Ashkenazi Charedim should really still be machmir. It’s only 8 days anyway, what’s the big deal? Also, it is an insult to the tzaddikim who kept these minhagim, like the Chassidishe Rebbes, who were aware of the reasons to be matir, but understand that there is also a chiyuv of “al titosh toras imecha”. If someone has a minhag they still have to keep it even if the reason doesn’t apply anymore, as is clear from the fact that we still keep Yom Tov Sheni Shebgalios.

    jmstnv
    jmstnv
    12 years ago

    I heard Rabbi Belsky say that now days rice companys such as Carolina rice use wheat to process rice .He said that even Sephardim should not use rice.on Pesach.

    JLan1
    JLan1
    12 years ago

    1) How much is this actually a chiddush? R’ Moshe Feinstein held that kitniyot derivatives (oil, for example) were not kitniyot. The description of what they’ll be able to eat (which more or less would allow oil, or corn syrup, or things like that) sounds an awful lot like that psak.

    2) Many rabbeim don’t consider quinoa to be kitniyot. The Star-K and CRC both hold that it isn’t, for example. In addition, R’ Moshe Feinstein also held that adding kitniyot to the list is something we should not do.

    Aryeh
    Aryeh
    12 years ago

    Rice is asur for Yerushalmis, even Sephardim.

    Trachtglat
    Trachtglat
    12 years ago

    Can VIN post or provide a link to the actual copy of the teshuvah (with the marei mekomos). I’m curious to where he’s coming from.

    shlomozalman
    shlomozalman
    12 years ago

    Smart Rabbi, good decision.

    Pereles
    Pereles
    12 years ago

    wow! Moshiach times for sure: rabbis say not to eat matza on Pesach, other rabbis say yes to kitniyot for everyone!

    FullaBullaRav
    FullaBullaRav
    12 years ago

    A wise Rav I know said that if you rearrange the letters of minhag it spells gehenom.

    Quinoa, which I have been eating for years, is technically a grass not a grain. The rabbeim in at least two major kashrut organizations approve it because we don’t add new kitniyot to the list. After all, we are lucky to eat potatoes. The rabbis in Europe almost banned that, but stopped before they realized there is nothing to eat. Two brands are accepted for Pesach because they do not process wheat in the same facility.

    People have strange minhagim on Pesach. But if you understand the history, you’ll see that some of it is nonsense in today’s educated world. For instance, I have heard some people won’t eat turkey. Not because it’s traif. But they hold by not having the mesorah for proper slaughtering of that bird (granted this is a year round thing).. Some Polish yidden don’t eat garlic. Why? Back in the old days garlic was used to keep mice away from the wheat.

    Corn was based on an incorrect translation. Maize and cornmeal are two different things. One is a vegetable; the other is actual chameitz. The translation was wrong.

    FullaBullaRav
    FullaBullaRav
    12 years ago

    Granted, it’s only 8 days. But if it’s a minhag and not a halacha, one should be able to eat. I cringe when someone tells me kitniyot is assur. No, it’s a decision made years ago.

    BTW, when my dad lived in Israel in the late 1940’s early 1950s the ashkenazic rabbis permitted kitniyot for at least one if not more than one Pesach. Why? There was not enough meat and the government of Israel restricted it because they wanted the herds to grow. Interesting side story… his community needed meat. So they brought in a shochet to slaughter a cow first according to halacha. Then they pretended the cow was hit by a truck so the non-religious inspector wouldn’t rat them out for killing one too many cows. Different world.

    Today we know what’s in our foods, where it comes from, and what is or is not chameitz.. I hope kitniyot will go the way of the dinosaur.

    Vestin
    Vestin
    12 years ago

    My father has a serious medical condition, is not allowed to fast yom kippur; and has problems digesting matzah, and still my rov had to look to see if there’s a heter for my father to eat rice (were askenazim) b’shas hadchak. Many people dont understand what keeping a minhag brought down in shulchan aruch means………

    12 years ago

    I think #3 meant to say that 40 years ago, peanut oil was commonly used on Pesach. The term canola oil didn’t exist until 1978.

    lazerx
    lazerx
    12 years ago

    Corn, as we know it, did not exist in Europe at the time of the ban on kitniyos, they had what we call maize, a corn like thing that was good for animals. It was not until Colombus found America that corn as we know it was discovered. So why should a fresh head of corn be banned is beyond me, but I am not a rabbi to make a change.

    seagul47
    seagul47
    12 years ago

    rice and kitniyos are two different things.

    Ashkenazim don’t eat rice based on our Mesora coming from Eretz Yisroel and the Gemora in P’sochim and Yerushalmi Challo–Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri saying that “Orez Machmetzes”–that rice becomes chometz.

    Even though he was a da’as yochid, for Pesach we are concerned even with a da’as yochid.

    Since he lived in Eretz Yisroel and our Ashkenazi halochos came largely from Eretz Yisroel (as opposed to the Sefardim, whose halochos came through Bovel)

    As for kitniyos, I never really understood the rational or the historical reasons, but for the 8 days involved, let’s not get ourselves worked up to find heterim on a very old minhag. [personally, I can do without beans and peas all year round, but give me mustard for my Pesach flanken 🙂 ]

    Canola is the Canadian name for Rapeseed–short for Canada Oil–I guess the name rapeseed doesn’t sound PC.

    Chag Kosher v’same’ach

    sumgai
    sumgai
    12 years ago

    minhag yisroel torah hee!

    Anon Ibid Opcit
    Anon Ibid Opcit
    12 years ago

    Amaranth is an alternative to quinoa. It’s also not a grain and doesn’t rise. It’s very high in protein. And the leaves are delicious.

    The-Macher
    The-Macher
    12 years ago

    8 days. 7 in EY. Come on. You can live without a lot more than even the strictest Chassidim live without for such a short period.

    shredready
    shredready
    12 years ago

    what is the big deal Sephardiem eat it, so to say it is assur or like the reform moment or eating chumatz is nonsense and shows one lack of halacha, and someone who only knows how to repeat things like a parrot

    MayerAlter
    MayerAlter
    12 years ago

    No one who is concerned about minhag will take any notice of this guy who is simply trying to make out he is something he is not: a genuine posek.

    Shtarker
    Active Member
    Shtarker
    12 years ago

    As with many other issues of halocha or minhag, the argument here is not really about the matter at hand. It’s about whose rebbe is more frum, which one is more reliable, and who is and is not an am ha’aretz or – C”V – a Reformer. It’s all politics and it’s ridiculous.

    proud-mo-israeli
    proud-mo-israeli
    12 years ago

    you dinosaurs can do what you want …. I started eating Kitniyot years ago. If it’s Kosher (for Pessach) for Sephardim, then it’s KOsher enough for me!

    The_Rat
    The_Rat
    12 years ago

    This is an uphill battle. Though this is a long-standing minhag, there is historical wiggle room. There is much precedent for kitniyot derivatives being consumed on Pesach by Ashkenazim. There is precedent for ignoring the minhag completely in the Ashkenaz community (eg. The Rosh at the turn of the 14th century).
    Additionally, the minhag has expanded to include corn which is not only not a legume, it is a monocot, rather than a dicot (the two biological orders of flowering plants) which is the group containing beans. The expansive definition includes all beans as forbidden regardless of whether they can be made into flour (string beans). Now some try to include quinoa.
    If expansion has not been ruled out, why is contraction a problem? Especially contraction back to widely held norms.
    Fear.
    This is not reformation of halacha, it’s merely questioning the application of minhag. Judaism is not a static religion. We are not Samaritans. We apply halacha based upon knowledge, not ignorance.
    If you who disagree, I’ll point out that since matzoh can be ground up to make a substance that can be used to bake something breadlike, it too could be forbidden.

    12 years ago

    An halachah we cannot move an inch but a chumrah is up to each generation to elaborate on the chumra if its till a chumrah or a kullah, thats not reform. here is a perfect example, We must understand the core principal of the chumrah. The reason why the previous Ashkenazim gedolim baned kitniyos was to avoid the grocery shelves should look like our groceries today (made with potato starch). This is a joke and doesn’t make any sense, this chumrah became the biggest kullah, shame on us, The Sephardi community is laughing their heart out. thats our kitniyus today. I would rather eat a good bean soup than products that look like cumets but made from potato starch. wake up guys.

    BTW I see alot of commentators here are confusing the word minhug and chumrah their is a big difference but here is not the place for that Kitniyus is a chumrah that has a reason behind it as explained.

    12 years ago

    I daven to Hashem. It says about Metzora to go to the Kohein or your time. Why your time; because you might think since he isn’t Aharon Hakohein it isn’t the same. We accept our tradition and do not change them The reform start with davening in German, mix seating and it went down hill from there. No kashrus, no tarahas Mishpaich. [excuse the spelling] to intermarriage. I can live without beans, rice, corn for 8 days; I can live without Pizza for 10 days [don’t stand in line for 1 or 2 hours Motzei Pesach to get a pizza. We are Yidden, we stood at Sinai, we spent 40 years in the desert and we will do what Hashem says. We are stronger than we know and we will stand strong to be a Jew

    jmstnv
    jmstnv
    12 years ago

    THIS IS VERY IIMPORTANT SO I’M POSTING IT A SECOND TIME
    I heard Rabbi Belsky say that now days rice companies such as Carolina rice use wheat to process rice .He said that even Sephardim should not use rice.on Pesach.
    RICE NOW DAYS IS CHOMETZ GOMER

    halacha
    halacha
    12 years ago

    Actually look in siman 453:1 and m”b sif katan 8 that kitniyos is batel b’rov

    sugnur
    sugnur
    12 years ago

    We have to take care not to trample on precious minhagim. Why are we following those minhagim? Because our grandparents did, that’s why!!! we’re not in the position to make a cheshbon whether it is or isn’t applicable nowadays. Minhagim that were passes on for generations turn law! Let’s hold onto our minhagim because those will keep us firmly connected until Moshiach comes!

    12 years ago

    This is right out of the JSOR pesach guide for Sefardim ONLY:
    Rice: White Rice: Any unenriched or organic rice is acceptable. Lundenberg, Rice Select and–very easy to check Super Lucky Elephant brand from Costco, or Golden Elephant Brand, sold on Ave. U, along with Sugat brand from Israel. Nishiki brand medium grain is not enriched.
    Most supermarket brands of rice are enriched. The enrichment is diluted with starch in order to distribute it evenly on the rice. This can be a corn, rice or a wheat starch base. Care must be taken to buy only rice that has enrichment that is not mixed with hames. We have consulted with Major Sephardic Poskim who have instructed us that the enriched varieties that are mixed in a non-hames starch are permissible.
    The following brands were checked and are acceptable: Ancient Harvest, Carolina, Goya, Mahatma, Publix, River, Riceland, Blue Diamond, WaterMaid, Success, Carolina Gold (parboiled) and Uncle Ben‟s.
    Brown rice: Any brand without additives. Basmati: Deer Brand or any unenriched. Pure wild Rice: (looks like short black sticks is acceptable without a marking: it is from the grass family, not a legume at all.