Kitniyot
(Legumes and Similar Foods)
The laws of
hametz from the Bible and Talmud apply only to food made from the "five species of grain." During the Middle
Ages, however, the custom arose among Ashkenazic Jews of not eating kitniyot on Pesah. The reason behind this custom is obscure, but it may have been
the possibility of confusing dried, ground, legumes with regular flour.
The customary prohibition extends also to some foods which are not really
legumes in a botanical sense. One rabbinic definition of kitniyot is "edible
seeds of annual plants which are not covered with flesh".
Thus,
we do not eat peas, beans, corn, rice, millet, mustard, peanuts, lentils,
buckwheat, chickpeas or sesame. Some authorities permit the use of
oil made from these vegetables. Furthermore, the rabbis were not sure
whether
or not peanuts are kitniyot. It should be noted that peanuts are unquestionably
legumes; the question is whether or not they fit the Jewish traditional
definition of kitniyot.
Thus, on the
basis of a double doubt, peanut oil is sometimes available with rabbinical
approval for Pesah. Naturally,
only oil which has such approval should be used. In 1984, the Rabbinical
Assembly permitted the eating of peanuts on Pesah. Nevertheless,
peanut products, such a peanut oil or peanut butter, should be eaten
on Pesah
only if they were made under rabbinical supervision, or if it can
be determined that they were made without any contact with hametz. Vegetarians
or other people with special dietary needs may have an especially difficult
time on Pesah if they are not able to eat kitniyot. I would
suggest that people in that situation consider eating kitniyot on Pesah,
following these guidelines:
1. Purchasing
kitniyot in their raw natural state is very much to be preferred to
the use of processed foods containing kitniyot.
2. If
processed foods are to be used, one should ascertain that ingredients
which may be truly
hametz do not constitute more than 1/60 of the whole. If it
is not possible to ascertain the ingredients of a processed
food to such
a degree of
precision, then the food should not be used on Pesah.
3. In
either case above, kitniyot foods should be purchased before
Pesah, so that the year-round rules of bittul (annulment
of a prohibited
substance)
may apply, and not the more stringent Pesah rules (which
do not permit bittul at all).
4. In
a household in which some people eat kitniyot on Pesah and others
do not, one may wish to use separate utensils
for the cooking
and serving
of kitniyot foods. However, in the last analysis, regular
Pesah utensils may be used for kitniyot, without compromising
the
pesachdik character
of those utensils.
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