Thursday, April 24, 2014

Why Sephardim Eat Kitniyot but Ashkenazim Don’t (by Elli Fisher)

posted by Shira Salamone at 3:40 PM

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

No, there's a logical theory. And Fisher is picking up on something that's been kicking around since 2009 or so (when blogger Menachem Mendel mentioned it first). It's not a logical reason. It's at best only a theory, since it's not one that is mentioned in the literature.

Fri Apr 25, 01:19:00 PM 2014  
Blogger The Reform Baal Teshuvah said...

Rather than "leavening" our tradition by coming up with new rationalizations for past chumrot, perhaps we can examine what does and does not make sense.

I had a rather interesting decision to make, since my wife and I eat Kitniyot. We have learned to make an Indian bread called Idli. It is made from beans, rich, and fenugreek. The fenugreek entices wild yeast to inoculate the beans and rice, you then grind it into batter and it most certainly does rise.

The conundrum: since we eat kitniyot, should we permit ourselves Idli over passover.

What we decided: The p'shat of Torah is that no leaven shall be found with you, and since the Idli were without a doubt leavened, they would not be permitted.

Sun Apr 27, 12:23:00 AM 2014  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Anon., you may be correct about this being only a theory, but at least it makes sense.

Reform BT, nice logic.

Sun Apr 27, 05:29:00 PM 2014  
Anonymous Miami Al said...

The problem is not the Kitniyot ban, which is relatively minor and long standing, but the bizarro business practices surrounding it.

40% of the Kosher Food industry is Passover sales, as a result, the OU has a business incentive to get increasingly silly on it. The "anger" from the population is NOT at being denied beans and rice, it's being coerced into buying extremely expensive mediocre products that have resulted in people finding $2k-$3k a "normal" amount to spend on Passover.

The insanity of labeling things as "kitniyot equipment" being KLP-Kitniyot is totally silly, and creating the issue.

I also see an extended process that is causing non-Orthodox Jews to abandon Passover altogether. I have heard from multiple Jews that, they can't really "keep Passover" so they don't bother… i.e. they can't go a week without Sushi (and the rice), and therefore, grab a bagel instead.

I think it would be good for the Jewish people if the focus was more on avoiding Chometz (going without bread, pasta, etc.) for 8 days, instead of becoming this all in Ashkenazi or nothing approach, where an increasingly large percentage of the Jewish people are choosing nothing.

It would be nice if the Orthodox leadership realized that an army of Reform/Conservative Jews refusing to grab Italian business lunches for Passover would make life HUGELY easier on the those of us that are more observant, in that we'd seem like a more stringent Jew, instead of this weird Amish-like people.

Tue Apr 29, 02:32:00 PM 2014  

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