ALL YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT KITNYOS AND THEN SOME. Rav Dessler explains that the הגדה was composed as an instrument to fulfill the מצוה of

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1 ALL YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT KITNYOS AND THEN SOME By Rabbi Mordechai Levin, Executive Director Kashruth Council of Canada --COR Toronto, Ontario,Canada אפילו כלנו חכמים, כלנו נבונים,כלנו זקנים,כלנו יודעים את התורה,מצוה עלינו לספר tell us הגדה The ביציאת מצרים. Rav Dessler explains that the הגדה was composed as an instrument to fulfill the מצוה of? different. The format is in a question and answer form. Why is this night והגדת לבנך We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. We offer motivation: we do things so that the children should wonder and ask. We give solid illustrations: This Matzah which we eat...חיב אדם לראות suggestions: Why do we eat bitter herbs? We also give imaginative את עצמו כאלו הוא יצא ממצרים. אילו part. There is the breaking down of the whole into its parts and concentration on each and the combination of the parts, so that we get הוציא אנו ממצרים ולא עשה בהם שפטים- דיינו על אחת כמה וכמה טובה כפולה ומוכפלת deliverance: the full effect of Hashems bounty and The Hagadah serves as a handbook for Pesach למקום עלינו שהוציאנו ממצרים ועשה בהם שפטים education. Therefore even if we were all men of wisdom it would still be an obligation upon us to tell the סיפור יציאת מצרים. Not only to tell it, but to do so in the specific manner, which we mentioned above, through questions and answers. Even if a man is all alone at the Seder, the גמרא פסחים,דף קט''ז tells us he must ask himself the questions and answer them. What purpose can there be in questions to which the answers are known beforehand? 1

2 Rav Dessler, replies that the Seder is not meant to impart a body of information to the brain; it is meant, to implant the story in the heart. The mind may be that of a genius and the heart of that genius might be ignorant. The preparations, and Chumroth for Pesach are too, in a way, lessons of the heart. The theme of Pesach is that we are different for the whole week of Pesach. Taking the hard line in order to separate חמץ from מצה is not only a physical transition but a spiritual one as well. I imagine it to be similar to that which the רמב ם'' writes in הלכות דעות,פ א'' that change in ones character occurs when one goes to opposite extremes. So too the חומרא observances of Pesach may be a,ברכה to elevate our נשמות to a new plateau. It is part and parcel of implantation of the סיפור יציאת מצרים into our hearts. It s interesting to note how Pesach leaves its lasting impressions even in the most nonreligious elements of our people. I will never forget the true story that a friend of mine told me regarding a building dedication party in his office building on המועד פסח.חול This party was Pesachdik and there happened to be another non-kosher party on a different floor of this building. My friend told me that being the two parties took place simultaneously, a non religious Jewish friend of his, from the party upstairs, came down to visit. He told my friend, We also have a party upstairs. I would have preferred to be at your Pesachdik party down here, but I want you to know, I only ate the meat and salads and did not touch the bread! 2

3 ק ל The Gezeirah of Kitnyot סימן and סימן תנ ''ג.שולחן ערוך The prohibition of Kitnyot is found in two places in the writes it was not until the,ספר יסודי ישורון,חלק ו ' his in,זצ ל'' Rav Gedaliah Felder.תס ד'' 1300, that the חכמים prohibited.קטניות What are?קטניות These are the legumes such as peas, corn, beans, rice, millet, and mustard. Rapeseed, known today as canola, and sunflower seeds are included. The famous was,רבינו the first to יצחק מקרביל זצ ',,סמ ', חכמים cite the prohibition and not the founder, by saying that this was the custom of the because every child,חמץ This did not relate to the fact that kitnyot can become.הקדמונים knows the גמרא פסחים, דף לה that only the five grains, חמישי מיני דגן (wheat, spelt, barley, oats and rye) can become!!חמץ It was therefore not the reason; it falls under the category.גזירה of Since cereals and other similar dishes are made both from,קטניות and the five grains, a.חמץ person could in error, come to eat dishes from the five types of grain, which are There are bakeries, which bake breads from,קטניות corn bread for example, which are actually made from rye flour! There are people, who will in error, assume, that they are eating bread from,קטניות while it might be from the חמץfive grains..קטניות To summarize, there are basically, two reasons for the prohibition of 1) The reason of the,טור because the grains of חמץ are mixed with them. I've seen this with my own eyes, canola or rapeseed mixed with wild oats and wheat kernels before it was sent to be pressed for oil. 2) The reason of the,מרדכי that people will confuse them and say it looks like the wheat flour and ask what is the difference between this flour and the קטניות flour? As חמץ mentioned before, there are places where they make breads from the mixture of both 3

4 and קטניות grains mixed together. רבנו מנוח that (רמב ם'' (a commentary on the ספר המנוחה 3) Rav Felder quotes from the ''ושמחת on the Holidays because it says קטניות writes that it isn't the custom to eat! קטניות in eating שמחה and there is no בחגך Rav Moshe Feinstein זצ ל'' has a very interesting ' סימן ס '' ג תשובה,אור''ח חלק ג,regarding peanuts and peanut oil. Rav Moshe writes, that he was familiar with many places that do eat peanuts on Pesach and asked why? Isn t it possible to make flour from it? doesn t it grow in fields like other קטניות? Isn t there a חשש it may be gathered with other grains? Rav Moshe responded that if this were the case then any vegetable that could be made into flour should likewise be prohibited!! We know this is not the case because there is nothing like the use of potato flour for Pesach. It seems from Rav Moshe that it's not the flour that is the issue but rather the גזירה stems from the community from which the produce was grown. In those communities where they had problems they made the appropriate.תקנות Whereas the potato was a relatively new vegetable, it was not included in the גזירה and it did not manifest itself as a problem. However, it is brought down by other Poskim that there were communities which had the custom of not using potato flour for the reason of the, מרדכי we mentioned above. The חיי אדם held not to eat potatoes because flour could be made from it. Could you imagine a פסח without potatoes?? 4

5 Rav Moshe wants to say the same thing with regard to peanuts. It is a relatively new product since the time of the שולחן ערוך and was not prohibited in this community. He says further that he saw no reason why one could not use them on Pesach as long as they were not exposed to חמץ food matters. I remember one of the grandchildren of Rav Moshe telling me he had peanuts in his grandfather s house. By the way, there has been some issue with regard to Cotton Seed oil as well. In ארץ ישראל there are Ashkenazic communities which don't use it, because of its similarity to קטניות. Instead they use only olive oil or walnut oil. Rav Moshe' s p'sak was that Cotton Seed oil was permissible and did not fall in the category of.קטניות Cotton Seed oil isn't harvested in the same way as the other grain seeds we discussed before. Nutritional products, which are made from either soy or rice, could have more than just a problem. קטניות These products, are generally listed for use of the infirm and children and those who are lactose intolerant and unable to tolerate any substitutes. Rice and soy based products at first glance appear to be no problem other than that they.קטניות are Researches into the production methods indicate otherwise. Rice and soy powder go through a conversion process to break down the starch molecules using enzymes. Enzymes, if you remember your high school biology, are a catalyst to change the starch molecules into sugars. The first one used is an Alpha Amylase, which is generally not from חמץ sources. The critical enzyme, which is in the second step of production, to create sweet syrup, is called Beta Amylase. This enzyme, a barley derivative, is used to break down the remaining molecules of starch to maltose. These enzymes according to 5

6 some Poskim consider it a המעמיד,דבר which is not negligible in 1/60 parts, or what we term as בששים.בטל This enzyme is also used in corn syrups and HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrups), which is used as a sweetener in most soda beverages. High maltose, derived from similar sources, is used in many hard candy productions, to reduce the moisture content. Maltose has also been found, in the substrates for bacterial nourishment, used in the making of microbial rennet. Microbial rennet is commonly used in cheese productions. Dextrose, used in a number of candy products, was primarily from corn. Now that the world is smaller with regard to acquiring raw materials at cheaper prices, dextrose now comes from France and other European countries, which derive it from WHEAT! This would be true of glucose as well. Glucose is another common sweetener, which from.חמץ European sources is generally There are two major food additives, which have a קטניות problem. Citric Acid and Aspartame. Citric Acid has many applications. It is used as an acidulent, flavouring component and a preservative. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener. Both are derived from a known CORN. source, קטניות A couple of questions can be asked at this point. 1) Is it not true that קטניות are בטל ברוב and do not even require the regular nullification of 1.5%!? Certainly these items are used in proportions of less than בטל בששים קטניות have a different Din than the קטניות 2) Is it not true that derivatives of 6

7 א''? קטניות שנשתנה themselves? What are The inהלכה ' סימן תנ ''ג סעיף א, the Ramah explains that בטול, in all cases of mixtures, is חוק and the דרכי משה of the פסק only permissible if it occurred by accident. This is the. חיי אדם and the שולחן ערוך הרב as well as the,יעקב The strength of this point is clearly written in סימן תס ''ד סע 'א where the Ramah writes" the,פסח 'mustard' at all on Pesach even if it was mixed in before "חרדל " eat custom not to משנה ברורה which we are prohibited from having". The קטניות since it is similar to the explains that even though it has been crushed and does not even look like קטניות when as well as שולחן ערוך הרב as well as the,חוק יעקב arrives, it is still prohibited. The פסח others, write, if the קטניות ingredient was put in intentionally, it is prohibited. This is the opinion of the רשב,יו''ד קל ד'' that any prohibited substance, even in the smallest amount that is put in the mixture intentionally, this new mixture is prohibited. The question of derivatives of the corn are treated like the corn itself as indicated by the משנה allows it to be used for oil for burning but not eating. The סימן תנ ד'' who in רמ א'' חרדל, in the case of the מחצית השקל and the מגן אברהם quoting the ס ''ק ו ',סימן תס ד'' in ברורה the mustard seed, that even if it were ground up and not recognized even before פסח, it is still prohibited. משנה ברורה in the הלכה The.השתנות The Poskim today argue as to what is the degree of discusses this issue with regard to Musk oil which is a deer ס, ''ק ז' סימן רט''ז ארוח חיים gland derivative. I am not fully acquainted with the process involved but according to 7

8 , the product in question must undergo a change where it is degraded to a substance הלכה which is totally non-edible like עפרא בעלמא. This seems to be the discussion as to whether this is what happens in the processing of citric acid and the aspartic acid used in Aspartame.?פסח Another question which I'm sure is bothering you is why all these restrictions on Where did they come from and why? The ש ע'' in סימן תס ''ז,סע' ח cites the רמ א'' that there are many different customs as to the restrictions of eating processed foods such as dried fruits on פסח,depending on the קהילות writes that many פסקי תשובות location and how they processed the food item. The חמץ, prohibited many food items because there was a suspicion of כלל ישראל of קדושים אל תטוש " of on or in the product. Even if the suspicion today is not warranted, because פרי " it is still prohibited. These prohibitions included 1) fish, because the תורת אימך, so the fish חמץ says they used to smear the fish with a whiskey or schnapps of מגדים would not smell. 2) Garlic and radishes, many of the Poskim, חיי אדם, פרי מגדים and the write they don't know why they were prohibited and permit their use משנה ברורה providing of course they have proper Hashgacha. Radishes are still used today by some for.כרפס 3) Honey, because they used to put חמץ into it. 4) Coffee, tea, cocoa and sugar, and the list goes on. Each individual should follow the customs of his fathers or his community and if there are questions of מנהג,one should consult his Rav. ארי ז '' ל הקדוש The extraordinary caution expressed in these customs may stem from the as stated in the באר היטיב in that says, one who is careful even from a סימן תמ ''ז סע ' 8

9 is promised that he will not commit a sin. This,משהו חמץ.פרשת כי תצא in זוהר is a, source for this ארי ז '' ל הקדוש The author of the פסקי תשובות asks how is it that we find that many of us are very careful in this ביעור חמץ,מצוה selling it, burning it and taking all these precautions, and we still? ארי ז '' ל הקדthe at times. What happened to our guarantee from יצר הרע fall prey to the One of the answers given to explain what he meant was that, one who is strict and keeps all the restrictions and customs as we mentioned above, on Pesach is one who is guaranteed that he won't transgress the prohibition of.חמץ The אימרי פנחס writes that the ארי was misquoted and it should have said instead of the "promise of not sinning", "it will HELP him, '' לו "יועיל from further transgressions, for how is it that man can be promised not to sin!! May it be the will of הקב ה'' that we be זוכה with all our efforts at cleaning the חמץ from. גאולה שלימה and the ביאת המשיח במהרה בימינו our homes and from our hearts to see the 9