Category of food that some Ashkenazi Jews do not eat on Passover
Kitniyot in the market
Kitniyot (Hebrew:קִטְנִיּוֹת,qitniyyot) is a Hebrew word meaninglegumes.[1] During thePassover holiday, however, the wordkitniyot (orkitniyos inAshkenazi dialects) takes on a broader meaning to include grains and seeds such as rice, corn, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds, in addition to legumes such as beans, peas, and lentils.[2]
TheTorah[3] prohibits Jews from eatingchametz duringPassover.Chametz is defined as leaven made from the "five species of grain" (wheat,barley, and three similar grains). Food made from any other species is not consideredchametz. However, amongAshkenazi and someSephardic customs, the custom (minhag) during Passover is to refrain from not only products of the five grains but also other grains and legumes, known askitniyot, even though they are notchametz.[4][5]
Traditions of what is considered kitniyot vary from community to community but generally includemaize (American corn), as well asrice,peas,lentils, andbeans. Many also include other legumes, such aspeanuts andsoy, in this prohibition.[6] TheChayei Adam considerspotatoes not to be kitniyot because they were unknown in the time when the prohibition was created, an opinion followed today by nearly allAshkenazi authorities.[7]
SomeSephardic andYemenite Jews have not traditionally observed a prohibition on eating kitniyot on Passover, although some groups do abstain from the use of driedpulses during Passover.
Since wheat flour only becomeschametz after it is ground and then mixed with water, one might assume that the kitniyot custom does not forbid kitniyot that were never ground or never came in contact with water. By this logic, it might be permitted to eat fresh kitniyot (like whole beans), or processed kitniyot which never came in contact with water (like certain squeezed oils or toasted solids). In fact, RabbiMordechai Eliyahu stated that the "first Ashkenazim in Jerusalem before the establishment of the state allowed fresh legumes and only prohibited dry legumes, but when the students of the Vilna Gaon and Baal Shem Tov came to Israel, they ‘brought with them’ from Europe the prohibition against fresh legumes".[8] Conservative rabbis have ruled to permit fresh kitniyot.[9]
In the 1930s,Maxwell House coffee hired the Joseph Jacobs advertising firm to market to a Jewish demographic.[10][11] The agency hired a rabbi to research coffee, resulting in a determination that the coffee bean is more like a berry than a bean, thus making it kosher for Passover.[12][11]
TheHalakhic argument (the argument according to Jewish law and tradition) against eating kitniyot during Passover originated inearly medieval France and Provence and later flourished inhigh medieval Ashkenazi (Rhineland) Germany. Most rabbinic sources prior to the 13th century, including the writings ofRav Huna (3rd century),Rava (4th century),Rav Ashi (5th century), andMaimonides (11th century), explicitly allowed eatingkitniyot during Passover.[13]
The original reasons behind the custom of not eating kitniyot during Passover are not clear. Suggestions include:
The grains which formchametz are commonly found mixed intokitniyot. Therefore, someone who cookskitniyot may inadvertently eatchametz.[14] (According to one theory, farmers in northern Europe using thethree-field system would grow grain and legumes only a few months apart in the same fields, making the mixing of these products a common reality for Ashkenazi Jews, and leading to thekitniyot custom developing among them.[15] Even today, commercial harvests of gluten-free oats are often contaminated by wheat, barley, or rye from a previous harvest.[16])
Kitniyot are frequently processed in ways similar tochametz grains, and cooked to make foods similar tochametz (e.g.cornbread). Thus, unlearned people might deduce from the presence ofkitniyot foods thatchametz is permitted as well.[14] This would makekitniyot a case ofmarit ayin.
TheTalmud notes thatRava objected to the workers of theExilarch cooking a food calledchasisi on Pesach, since it could be confused withchametz.[17]Tosafot andNathan ben Jehiel understand thatchasisi are lentils.[18] According toVilna Gaon, this story establishes the basis for the concern for kitniyot.[19]
Because one is commanded to rejoice on holidays (Deut 16:14), and "there is no joy in eating dishes made from kitniyot",[20] some Jewish communities avoidedkitniyot during all festivals as far back as the 9th century and similar customs were observed by the ancient Greeks, Romans and Arabs.[13] Elsewhere, lentils are considered a food of mourners.
Whilekitniyot do not fully ferment in the manner ofchametz, they do undergo partial fermentation, similar tochametz nuksheh [he].[21]
TheJerusalem Talmud prescribes an experiment to determine if a species can becomechametz; once the experiment was forgotten, species which might have tested positive had to be treated as potentially forbidden. Therefore (it is proposed) custom in the Land of Israel (where the Jerusalem Talmud was followed) eventually forbid kitniyot, and this custom was inherited by Ashkenazi communities.[22]
Even in the early days of thekitniyot prohibition, someposkim opposed it, among themRabbenu Yerucham (14th century), who called it a "foolish custom",Jacob ben Asher (14th century), who called it "an unnecessary stringency", andSamuel ben Solomon of Falaise, one of the first to write about the custom the 13th century, who called it "mistaken".[23][24][13]
More recently, rabbis including Rav Moshe Feinstein did not advocate abandoning the custom, but opposed expanding the list of forbidden kitniyot.[25]
AlthoughReform andConservative Ashkenazi Judaism currently allow for the consumption ofkitniyot during Passover, long-standing tradition in these and other communities has been to abstain from their consumption.[26][27]
Reform Jewish authorities, such as theResponsa Committee of the Reform Jewish Movement, the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada, have ruled in favor of permitting kitniyot.[28][29] Reform Judaism first formally permitted eatingkitniyot during Passover in the 19th century.[30]
While many Conservative Jews observe the tradition of avoidingkitniyot during Passover, theCommittee on Jewish Law and Standards, an authoritative body in Conservative Judaism, issued tworesponsa in December 2015 that said it was now permissible to eat these previously prohibited foods throughout the world.[31][13][32] These responsa were based on a 1989 responsa by theResponsa Committee of the Israeli Conservative Movement that permitted Conservative Jews in Israel to eatkitniyot.[24] While eating kitniyot has become more common in Israel, due in large part to the influence of Sephardic Jewish food customs, it is not yet clear whether Conservative Jews in other parts of the world will embrace the new rulings or continue to refrain from kitniyot.[33][34]
Some rabbis, such as Orthodox rabbiDavid Bar-Hayim and Conservative rabbiDavid Golinkin, have argued that the prohibition ofkitniyot, while appropriate in Eastern Europe where the Ashkenazi tradition began, should not apply to the United States or Israel.[23][24][35][36][37] According toThe Forward, some Israelis are choosing a more permissive rabbinical interpretation of kitniyot, which allows for the consumption of a wider range of formerly banned items,[38][39] and some Ashkenazi Jews in Israel who are married to Sephardic Jews have adopted the Sephardic custom. While theUnion of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and other Orthodox organizations still maintain that the prohibition is binding on all Ashkenazic Jews worldwide,[40]Orthodox Union Kosher maintains akitniyothechsher intended for non-Ashkenazic Jews who consumekitniyot on Passover.[41]
