Kitniyot
Encyclopedia
Kitniyot, qit'niyyoth (literally legumes) are a category of foods which are defined by Jewish law and tradition
that Ashkenazi Jews (Jews from Eastern Europe, Germany, etc.) avoid eating during the Biblical
festival of Passover
.
(Exodus 13:3) prohibits Jews from eating leaven (chametz
) during Passover
. Technically, chametz is only leaven made from the "five grains": wheat
, spelt
, barley
, shibbolet shu'al (two-rowed barley
, according to Maimonides
; oats
according to Rashi
) or rye
; although there are additional rabbinic prohibitions against eating these grains in any form other than matzo
.
Among traditional Ashkenazi Jews, the custom during Passover is to refrain from not only products of the five grains but also other grains and legumes. Traditions of what is considered kitniyot vary from community to community but generally include maize
(North American corn), as well as rice
, peas
, lentils, and beans. Many also include peanut
s in this prohibition, and one source, the Chayei Adam
, also includes potato
es in his list, although his opinion is not followed by any large or major groups. Sephardi Jews
typically do not observe the ban on kitniyot, albeit some groups do abstain from the use of dried pulses
during Passover.
The origins of this practice is not clear, though two common theories are that these items are often made into products resembling chametz
(e.g. cornbread), or that these items were normally stored in the same sacks as the five grains and people worried that they might become contaminated with chametz. It is also possible that crop rotation
would result in the forbidden chametz grains growing in the same fields, and being mixed in with the kitniyot. Those authorities concerned with these three issues suggested that by avoiding eating kitniyot, people would be better able to avoid chametz. The Vilna Gaon
(Hagaos HaGra, ibid.) cites a novel source for this custom. The Gemorrah in Pesachim (40b) notes that Rava objected to the workers of the Raish Gelusa (the Exilarch) cooking a food called chasisi on Pesach, since it was wont to be confused with chametz. The Tosefos explain that, according to the Aruch, chasisi are lentils, and thus, argues the Gra, establishes the basis for the concern of kitniyot. Rabbi David Golinkin in the Responsa of the Masorati (Conservative) Movement cites Rabbenu Manoah (Provence, ca. 1265) who wrote an opinion in his commentary on Maimonides (Laws of Festivals and Holidays 5:1) that "It is not proper to eat qitniyot on holidays because it is written (in Deut. 16:14) that ‘you shall rejoice in your festivals’ and there is no joy in eating dishes made from kitniyot".
Jewish law is customarily quite stringent about the prohibition against even tiny amounts of chametz in the house during Passover, much more so than the regular laws of kashrut
. Thus a tradition developed to avoid these products altogether, and this eventually developed into what most of the European Jewish community accepted upon themselves as a minhag
, a legally binding custom.
Even where the prohibition of kitniyot was practiced, it was not without opposition. Some poskim
went as far as to call it a "stupid practice" without basis. Others, including Rav Moshe Feinstein did not advocate abandoning the custom, but he certainly opposed the tendency to expand the list of forbidden kitniyot (see Igrot Moshe, Orah Hayyim 3. 63).
Sephardic and Yemenite Jews generally do not accept the need for this minhag, and thus eat kitniyot on Passover. Some Ashkenazi Jews in Israel who have married Sephardic Jews adopt the Sephardic custom; this often occurs with Orthodox
rabbinic approval — a noted leniency, since Orthodox rabbis usually hold that one may not reject the minhagim (customs) of one's parents. In light of the gathering of Jews of all ethnic groups back in the land of Israel
, Masorti
Jews, the Conservative movement in Israel, hold that all Jews living in Israel may safely abandon the minhag of refraining from kitniyot.
While this practice is considered binding for Ashkenazim in Orthodox Judaism, these items are not chametz and therefore are not subject to the same prohibitions and stringencies as chametz. For example while there is a prohibition against owning chametz on Passover, no such prohibition applies to kitniyot. Similarly, while someone would not be permitted to eat chametz on Passover unless his life were in danger, the prohibition of kitniyot is not so strict. People who might be permitted to eat kitniyot include infirm people and pregnant vegetarians. Such dispensations are far more common in Israel where there is a large Sephardi population.
The practice of not eating chametz has evolved to the point of not eating even derivatives of kitniyot, such as corn syrup.
Rabbi David Bar-Hayim
of Machon Shilo offers a unique Orthodox approach: he has published a responsum outlining his opinion that there is no binding custom on Ashkenazim in the Land of Israel as historically this was not the local practice (which, he explains, is the essence of custom); in March 2007 he released a ruling that all Jews in the Land of Israel are permitted to eat kitniyot (see English Article and Hebrew Legal Ruling). Nevertheless, aside from a small group of his followers, the vast majority of religiously observant Ashkenazim in Israel disagree with this ruling and still refrain from eating kitniyot on Passover.
Outside Israel, however, at least until 2011, the distinction between Kitniyot and non Kitniyot or Chametz can be almost academic. Instead of relying on reading ingredients on labels, Orthodox Jews require their manufactured and processed food to be certified or checked (year round) to see that it qualifies with Halacha in both the ingredients and tools used to process and manufacture the food. For Passover, Jews require certification of this in addition to certification that foods neither contain chametz nor were prepared with utensils that contain chametz. In most countries outside Israel (including the US) the major agencies which certify food as kosher, or kosher for Passover, do not have a special category for food which is "only kitniyot" and not chametz. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for the typical consumer to tell conclusively if an item is kitniyot or would be considered chametz because of some hidden ingredients or manufacturing process. Thus, those who would eat kitniyot—people who are sick, sephardim, or others who could take advantage of the special category known as kitniyot—are largely out of luck and must treat any processed items without full certification as possibly full fledged chametz. In 2011 the OU, a major certification agency, began issuing a kitniyot-only hecksher.
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
that Ashkenazi Jews (Jews from Eastern Europe, Germany, etc.) avoid eating during the Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
festival of Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
.
Description and origins
The TorahTorah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
(Exodus 13:3) prohibits Jews from eating leaven (chametz
Chametz
Chametz, also Chometz, and other spellings transliterated from , are leavened foods that are forbidden on the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to Jewish law, Jews may not own, eat or benefit from chametz during Passover...
) during Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
. Technically, chametz is only leaven made from the "five grains": wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, spelt
Spelt
Spelt is a hexaploid species of wheat. Spelt was an important staple in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to medieval times; it now survives as a relict crop in Central Europe and northern Spain and has found a new market as a health food. Spelt is sometimes considered a subspecies of the...
, barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
, shibbolet shu'al (two-rowed barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
, according to Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
; oats
OATS
OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...
according to Rashi
Rashi
Shlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
) or rye
Rye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
; although there are additional rabbinic prohibitions against eating these grains in any form other than matzo
Matzo
Matzo or matzah is an unleavened bread traditionally eaten by Jews during the week-long Passover holiday, when eating chametz—bread and other food which is made with leavened grain—is forbidden according to Jewish law. Currently, the most ubiquitous type of Matzo is the traditional Ashkenazic...
.
Among traditional Ashkenazi Jews, the custom during Passover is to refrain from not only products of the five grains but also other grains and legumes. Traditions of what is considered kitniyot vary from community to community but generally include maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
(North American corn), as well as rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
, peas
PEAS
P.E.A.S. is an acronym in artificial intelligence that stands for Performance, Environment, Actuators, Sensors.-Performance:Performance is a function that measures the quality of the actions the agent did....
, lentils, and beans. Many also include peanut
Peanut
The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...
s in this prohibition, and one source, the Chayei Adam
Chayei Adam
Chayei Adam is a work of Jewish law by Rabbi Avraham Danzig , dealing with the laws discussed in the Orach Chayim section of the Shulchan Aruch...
, also includes potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es in his list, although his opinion is not followed by any large or major groups. Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
typically do not observe the ban on kitniyot, albeit some groups do abstain from the use of dried pulses
Pulse (legume)
A pulse is an annual leguminous crop yielding from one to twelve seeds of variable size, shape, and color within a pod. Pulses are used for food and animal feed. The term "pulse", as used by the Food and Agricultural Organization , is reserved for crops harvested solely for the dry seed...
during Passover.
The origins of this practice is not clear, though two common theories are that these items are often made into products resembling chametz
Chametz
Chametz, also Chometz, and other spellings transliterated from , are leavened foods that are forbidden on the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to Jewish law, Jews may not own, eat or benefit from chametz during Passover...
(e.g. cornbread), or that these items were normally stored in the same sacks as the five grains and people worried that they might become contaminated with chametz. It is also possible that crop rotation
Crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Crop rotation confers various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals...
would result in the forbidden chametz grains growing in the same fields, and being mixed in with the kitniyot. Those authorities concerned with these three issues suggested that by avoiding eating kitniyot, people would be better able to avoid chametz. The Vilna Gaon
Vilna Gaon
Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman Kramer, known as the Vilna Gaon or Elijah of Vilna and simply by his Hebrew acronym Gra or Elijah Ben Solomon, , was a Talmudist, halachist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of non-hasidic Jewry of the past few centuries...
(Hagaos HaGra, ibid.) cites a novel source for this custom. The Gemorrah in Pesachim (40b) notes that Rava objected to the workers of the Raish Gelusa (the Exilarch) cooking a food called chasisi on Pesach, since it was wont to be confused with chametz. The Tosefos explain that, according to the Aruch, chasisi are lentils, and thus, argues the Gra, establishes the basis for the concern of kitniyot. Rabbi David Golinkin in the Responsa of the Masorati (Conservative) Movement cites Rabbenu Manoah (Provence, ca. 1265) who wrote an opinion in his commentary on Maimonides (Laws of Festivals and Holidays 5:1) that "It is not proper to eat qitniyot on holidays because it is written (in Deut. 16:14) that ‘you shall rejoice in your festivals’ and there is no joy in eating dishes made from kitniyot".
Jewish law is customarily quite stringent about the prohibition against even tiny amounts of chametz in the house during Passover, much more so than the regular laws of kashrut
Kashrut
Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér , meaning "fit" Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus) is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed...
. Thus a tradition developed to avoid these products altogether, and this eventually developed into what most of the European Jewish community accepted upon themselves as a minhag
Minhag
Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, Nusach , refers to the traditional order and form of the prayers...
, a legally binding custom.
Even where the prohibition of kitniyot was practiced, it was not without opposition. Some poskim
Posek
Posek is the term in Jewish law for "decider"—a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive or in those situations where no halakhic precedent exists....
went as far as to call it a "stupid practice" without basis. Others, including Rav Moshe Feinstein did not advocate abandoning the custom, but he certainly opposed the tendency to expand the list of forbidden kitniyot (see Igrot Moshe, Orah Hayyim 3. 63).
Sephardic and Yemenite Jews generally do not accept the need for this minhag, and thus eat kitniyot on Passover. Some Ashkenazi Jews in Israel who have married Sephardic Jews adopt the Sephardic custom; this often occurs with Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
rabbinic approval — a noted leniency, since Orthodox rabbis usually hold that one may not reject the minhagim (customs) of one's parents. In light of the gathering of Jews of all ethnic groups back in the land of Israel
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
, Masorti
Masorti
The Masorti Movement is the name given to Conservative Judaism in Israel and other countries outside Canada and U.S. Masorti means "traditional" in Hebrew...
Jews, the Conservative movement in Israel, hold that all Jews living in Israel may safely abandon the minhag of refraining from kitniyot.
While this practice is considered binding for Ashkenazim in Orthodox Judaism, these items are not chametz and therefore are not subject to the same prohibitions and stringencies as chametz. For example while there is a prohibition against owning chametz on Passover, no such prohibition applies to kitniyot. Similarly, while someone would not be permitted to eat chametz on Passover unless his life were in danger, the prohibition of kitniyot is not so strict. People who might be permitted to eat kitniyot include infirm people and pregnant vegetarians. Such dispensations are far more common in Israel where there is a large Sephardi population.
The practice of not eating chametz has evolved to the point of not eating even derivatives of kitniyot, such as corn syrup.
Rabbi David Bar-Hayim
David Bar-Hayim
David Bar-Hayim is an Israeli rabbi who heads the Machon Shilo in Jerusalem, Israel.-Biography:...
of Machon Shilo offers a unique Orthodox approach: he has published a responsum outlining his opinion that there is no binding custom on Ashkenazim in the Land of Israel as historically this was not the local practice (which, he explains, is the essence of custom); in March 2007 he released a ruling that all Jews in the Land of Israel are permitted to eat kitniyot (see English Article and Hebrew Legal Ruling). Nevertheless, aside from a small group of his followers, the vast majority of religiously observant Ashkenazim in Israel disagree with this ruling and still refrain from eating kitniyot on Passover.
Outside Israel, however, at least until 2011, the distinction between Kitniyot and non Kitniyot or Chametz can be almost academic. Instead of relying on reading ingredients on labels, Orthodox Jews require their manufactured and processed food to be certified or checked (year round) to see that it qualifies with Halacha in both the ingredients and tools used to process and manufacture the food. For Passover, Jews require certification of this in addition to certification that foods neither contain chametz nor were prepared with utensils that contain chametz. In most countries outside Israel (including the US) the major agencies which certify food as kosher, or kosher for Passover, do not have a special category for food which is "only kitniyot" and not chametz. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for the typical consumer to tell conclusively if an item is kitniyot or would be considered chametz because of some hidden ingredients or manufacturing process. Thus, those who would eat kitniyot—people who are sick, sephardim, or others who could take advantage of the special category known as kitniyot—are largely out of luck and must treat any processed items without full certification as possibly full fledged chametz. In 2011 the OU, a major certification agency, began issuing a kitniyot-only hecksher.
External links
- Etymology of "kitniyot"
- All about Kitniyot (legumes) on Chabad.orgChabad.orgChabad.org is the flagship website of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. It serves not just its own members but Jews worldwide in general. It was one of the first Jewish internet sites and the first and largest virtual congregation.-History:...
- Is marijuana kosher for Pessah?