Ashkenazim, kitniyos, and kitniyos derivatives (and kids)

We actually started using peanuts several years ago. My husband investigated the issue and spoke with our Rabbi and we, or rather he, learned what was required.

This year we asked about using products that have what is acceptable kitniyot. We were told that it was fine.The subject is fascinating to me.
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Executive Member Joined: Mar 03 2008 Posts: 287

Just a note- my husband is a Rav in an Israeli community in Israel and in his Halacha shiur before Pesach he discussed this issue. I don't have the sources in front of me (and he is asleep now) but this is the reasoning (if someone wants I can post sources another time)

There are two halachot that are relevant here:

1) Shemen Kitniyot - some poskim say that while kitniyot are not allowed - shemen kitniyot are. This is because even if grains were mistakenly mixed with the kitniyot (which is one of the main reasons they are assur) there would be no oil extracted from them in the pressing process.

2) Rav Moshe Feinstein claimed that the definition of what is considered kitniyot is limited to those foods which were eaten at the time of the gezeira. That means foods that were not eaten in Eastern Europe at that time do not fall within kitniyot. That is the reason why some people eat quinoa, peanuts etc.

The fact that people eat canola oil is a combination between these two laws - they claim canola was not eaten at the time of the ban, and it falls under the law of shemen kitniyot.

When Ashkenazim choose to eat shemen kitniyot - they are not just blithely ignoring kitniyot laws, it does have a halachic basis.

A good article summarizing can be found on the OU website. http://www.oukosher.org/index.php/passover/article/4830/ (although they claim canola is kitniyot and I have heard from a number of reputable sources that it is not).

As for eating food cooked on kitniyot keilim, I have never heard that it is a problem.

So if using kitniyos oils has a basis, why is it that its just become more prevalent in recent years? And its not just people making aliya now so now its available with a klp hechsher. Is it a trend now to start using kitniyot even if your family mesora was not to? I find it interesting. What percentage of ashkenazi DL/MO use kitniyos oils on pesach, I wonder...
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BTW, dh just went off to shul. If you want to way-lay him on his way home he can probably give you better answers than I can. And anything I said that contradicts what he tells you...he's right and I misunderstood.

I think HindaRochel's onto something re: the tipping point.

This year in particular rabbis in the DL community seem to be trying to get the word out. It seemed like each of the alonei Shabbat had its own column from a rav talking about what various ashkenazim do and don't eat on Pesach, and what's the regular minhag vs. a chumra.

Active Poster Joined: Mar 14 2005 Posts: 61

For the record, Rav Bar Chaim (the rav from Machon Shilo who I quoted above) is not our rav; we come from Ashkenazi stock and do not eat kitniyot on Pesach.
But his point is an interesting one: he believes that when relocating, one should take on the minhag hamakom and not adhere to "family mesorah" in matters of minhag. And his belief is that the ORIGINAL minhag hamakom of E"Y was to eat kitniyot on Pesach (not that the minhag hamakom has become to eat kitnityot bkz of the prevalence of Mizrachim in our Land).

If we haven't reached the tipping point in our generation, then I can definitely see eating kitniyot as becoming standardized for Bnei E"Y in our children's generation (with perhaps a small subgroup of Ashenazi charedim holding fast to their mesorah from galut). I look forward to a single minhag for all Bnei E"Y regarding this issue (even though we personally are not quite ready to make that leap, I can forsee it gladly for my children)!

Silver Member Joined: Nov 17 2011 Posts: 912

Beginner Joined: Jul 19 2011 Posts: 3

so we are very strictly non-kitnyot eating Ashkenazim - but one of my kids is allergic to potatoes, which makes pesach impossible- so he is allowed kitnyot - so he gets to eat rice and kitnyot snacks while everyone else looks on...

The machlokes is old.
Ashkenaz Jews who moved in Bulgary, Italy... centuries ago had the same shaila. Some of them still don't eat kitnios, some do, some do until they move in a place where no-kitniot KLP is easy to find like Israel. My dh's family is allowed to eat kitniot. We go without as to be able to have more people over including my parents.
Source: my dh's cousin who is a rabbi, dh's chavrusa who is Bulgarian. It may have been the same in places like Greece and Turkey, but I don't have more infos.
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Platinum Member Joined: Nov 17 2008 Posts: 5047

This is an interesting article about kitniyos: Kitniyos: A Brief Overview