What is Kosher for Passover, and why Kitniot-Free?
Friday morning I got an e-mail from someone at the Orthodox Union, the largest organization that does Kosher certification in the USA.
I had e-mailed saying:
The reply from the OU said, in part:
So I guess that answers that question. :(
Morning pointed out to me that I just suddenly started talking about Kosher for Passover food and kitniot-free status on my blog without really explaining what that means. So here's my feeble attempt at explaining. Those who are more knowledgeable, please feel free to correct me if I get any of the details wrong.
#############################
When the nation of Israel was in captivity in Egypt, God sent Moses to lead them to freedom. Most people are probably familiar with the story of the plagues God sent when Pharaoh refused to allow the Children of Israel to leave.
The last and most serious of these plagues involved the death of all the firstborn in Egypt--even the firstborn of the livestock.
God told Moses to have the people kill a male lamb (sheep or goat) without blemish and put its blood around the door. When the Angel of Death came through Egypt, He would pass over the homes with blood on the doorposts and lintel. The firstborn of that household would be spared.
They were to roast the lamb and eat it with bitter herbs. They must eat hurriedly with their traveling clothes on, ready to leave at a moment's notice. Because there would be no time for bread to rise, God told them to bake unleavened bread.
It all happened just as God said. When all the Egyptian firstborn died in the night, Pharaoh drove the Israelites out of Egypt. They left in haste, taking their unrisen bread with them, and baked it on the way.
The book of Exodus in the Bible records the series of events, and God's instructions for commemorating it every year with the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover Supper.
Exodus 12:14-28 (NIV)
God reiterated his instructions for the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover celebration a number of times, both when giving the Law and the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, and later when people had stopped following God's commandments and had to be instructed to begin again.
The avoidance of yeast became very important at Passover time. God's instructions were to remove all leaven from the house, and even from the entire land of Israel. Anyone who ate anything with leavening in it would be essentially excommunicated from the nation of Israel.
The week of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread holds great significance for Jewish people. Many Jews who don't keep Kosher the rest of the year will even keep Kosher for Passover at this time of year.
The Passover is significant to Christians and Messianic Jews also, for additional reasons.
Passover figures heavily in the life of Jesus. He was a Jew, of course, and went with his family went to Jerusalem each year to celebrate the Passover when he was growing up.
The very important Last Supper that Jesus had with his disciples just before his death was a Passover Supper. Christians celebrate it with a ceremony we call Communion, with unleavened bread and wine commemorating both Passover and the death of Christ. The New Testament speaks of Jesus Christ as our Passover Lamb, the blameless and pure sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world, and compares leaven to sin in that context:
I Corinthians 5:6-8
Most Gentile Christians don't celebrate Passover in the same way the Jewish people do, because we consider that Jesus was the fulfillment of that feast and of all the Law. We see ourselves as now under a new law since Jesus has fulfilled all the Old Testament and paid the penalty for our sins, instituting a new era of grace.
When we do celebrate the Old Testament feasts, it is generally with a strong emphasis on the Messianic symbolism, such as the lamb representing Christ's sacrifice on the cross. We do still see the Jewish feasts as holy and significant.
Today, the Jewish interpretation of the law for the Feast of Unleavened bread requires that they not be in possession of or receive any benefit from baker's yeast or any grain that might have leavening in it.
Since most bread grains begin to ferment and grow yeast soon after being moistened with water, they take great precautions with these grains. No wheat, barley, rye, oats or spelt that have touched water long enough to be tainted with yeast organisms before baking is allowed. As with sourdough bread, the grain captures and incubates yeast spores from the air when moist. The generally-accepted Jewish rule is that yeast may be present in the grain 18 minutes after contact with water.
Since grain is generally soaked before being ground into flour, using any normal flour or grain product is out of the question. Matzos (the traditional flat bread of Passover) and Matzo meal (a flour substitute) are made under strict supervision so that from the moment the grain touches water until it finished baking is no more than 18 minutes. Any product made from one of the 5 grains without this precaution is considered Chametz, and is forbidden during Passover.
The Jewish people have a tradition of going above and beyond the basic requirements of the law, drawing extra boundaries around it to make sure they don't come close to breaking the rules. This explains many of their traditions, including that of avoiding kitniot on Passover.
For some Jewish people, mainly those of Sefardic and Yemenite descent, they avoid only the five grains during Passover. But Ashkenazic Jews (from Europe) also avoid foods classified as kitniot, sometimes translated "small things" or legumes. Kitniot (qit'niyyoth [קִטְנִיּוֹת ,קטניות , קיטניות] also spelled kitniyot, kitnyot or kiniot) includes small grains and seeds that swell when immersed in water and can be used to make flour. These grains are often grown with the 5 grains and may be frequently contaminated with them. Corn, soy, rice, beans, anise and many other items are considered kitniot.
Jews who follow the tradition of avoiding kitniot need to be aware of which kosher-certifying agencies follow this practice since Sephardic agencies may certify something kosher for Passover which would not be K-P to an Ashkenazic Jew. The Orthodox Union (OU), Star-K, and many other certifying agencies follow Ashkenazi practices.
The actual kitniot list varies depending upon different authorities, but always includes soy and corn. That, of course, is important to us because of Baby E's adverse reactions to those foods.
However, since the avoidance of Kitniot is a minhag (tradition or custom passed down from the rabbis) rather than a law or commandment directly from God, there is much more leniency with the Kitniot rules than with the Chametz rules.
Basically, a Jewish person may not own or derive any benefit from Chametz during Passover. It's all right to own or derive benefit from Kitniot during Passover, but generally Ashkenazi Jews are forbidden to eat Kitniot. There are exceptions to this, though, especially for the very young, old or ill.
As I've recently learned, there is also a tradition of allowing the use of Kitniot as a raw material in things like fermentation processes. There's a rule of nishtaneh ha’teva (changed nature) that holds that if the kitniot has been completely changed both in chemistry and in taste, then it is no longer forbidden to use in a food. Some authorities hold that it must become inedible at some point during the process to qualify as nishtaneh, while others don't. There are certain rules about very trace amounts or accidental inclusion of kitniot in foods being allowed, too.
There is no such leniency for chametz. Nothing that has ever been in any way contaminated with chametz (or with any inherently unkosher foods) can be used, no matter how refined or changed, how tiny the amount or accidental the exposure.
That's why foods such as xanthan gum grown on corn syrup can be used in some products certified Kosher for Passover. The fermentation and refining process is considered to change the corn enough that it's no longer really kitniot.
Unfortunately, nishtaneh ha’teva doesn't change the corn enough to keep Baby E from having a reaction after eating it.
I had e-mailed saying:
Hello! I was just reading on your website that the OU sometimes certifies chometz-free corn syrup to be used in the manufacture of substances such as Kosher for Passover citric acid and xanthan gum.
I was wondering if the Kosher for Passover products such as candies which use the citric acid and xanthan gum grown on the chometz-free corn syrup would then be labeled OU-P or OU chometz-free?
The reason I ask is that my daughter has severe corn allergies. She reacts to even highly refined products such as citric acid and xanthan gum that are cultured on any kind of corn derivative. Even citric acid cultured on chometz-free corn syrup would be a problem for her.
Thank you very much,
[my name and contact info]
The reply from the OU said, in part:
We are very sorry, but yes, it would be labeled as OU-P (Kosher for Passover).
So I guess that answers that question. :(
Morning pointed out to me that I just suddenly started talking about Kosher for Passover food and kitniot-free status on my blog without really explaining what that means. So here's my feeble attempt at explaining. Those who are more knowledgeable, please feel free to correct me if I get any of the details wrong.
#############################
When the nation of Israel was in captivity in Egypt, God sent Moses to lead them to freedom. Most people are probably familiar with the story of the plagues God sent when Pharaoh refused to allow the Children of Israel to leave.
The last and most serious of these plagues involved the death of all the firstborn in Egypt--even the firstborn of the livestock.
God told Moses to have the people kill a male lamb (sheep or goat) without blemish and put its blood around the door. When the Angel of Death came through Egypt, He would pass over the homes with blood on the doorposts and lintel. The firstborn of that household would be spared.
They were to roast the lamb and eat it with bitter herbs. They must eat hurriedly with their traveling clothes on, ready to leave at a moment's notice. Because there would be no time for bread to rise, God told them to bake unleavened bread.
It all happened just as God said. When all the Egyptian firstborn died in the night, Pharaoh drove the Israelites out of Egypt. They left in haste, taking their unrisen bread with them, and baked it on the way.
The book of Exodus in the Bible records the series of events, and God's instructions for commemorating it every year with the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover Supper.
Exodus 12:14-28 (NIV)
"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do.
"Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."
Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
"Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.' " Then the people bowed down and worshiped. The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron. "
God reiterated his instructions for the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover celebration a number of times, both when giving the Law and the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, and later when people had stopped following God's commandments and had to be instructed to begin again.
The avoidance of yeast became very important at Passover time. God's instructions were to remove all leaven from the house, and even from the entire land of Israel. Anyone who ate anything with leavening in it would be essentially excommunicated from the nation of Israel.
The week of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread holds great significance for Jewish people. Many Jews who don't keep Kosher the rest of the year will even keep Kosher for Passover at this time of year.
The Passover is significant to Christians and Messianic Jews also, for additional reasons.
Passover figures heavily in the life of Jesus. He was a Jew, of course, and went with his family went to Jerusalem each year to celebrate the Passover when he was growing up.
The very important Last Supper that Jesus had with his disciples just before his death was a Passover Supper. Christians celebrate it with a ceremony we call Communion, with unleavened bread and wine commemorating both Passover and the death of Christ. The New Testament speaks of Jesus Christ as our Passover Lamb, the blameless and pure sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world, and compares leaven to sin in that context:
I Corinthians 5:6-8
"Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
Most Gentile Christians don't celebrate Passover in the same way the Jewish people do, because we consider that Jesus was the fulfillment of that feast and of all the Law. We see ourselves as now under a new law since Jesus has fulfilled all the Old Testament and paid the penalty for our sins, instituting a new era of grace.
When we do celebrate the Old Testament feasts, it is generally with a strong emphasis on the Messianic symbolism, such as the lamb representing Christ's sacrifice on the cross. We do still see the Jewish feasts as holy and significant.
Today, the Jewish interpretation of the law for the Feast of Unleavened bread requires that they not be in possession of or receive any benefit from baker's yeast or any grain that might have leavening in it.
Since most bread grains begin to ferment and grow yeast soon after being moistened with water, they take great precautions with these grains. No wheat, barley, rye, oats or spelt that have touched water long enough to be tainted with yeast organisms before baking is allowed. As with sourdough bread, the grain captures and incubates yeast spores from the air when moist. The generally-accepted Jewish rule is that yeast may be present in the grain 18 minutes after contact with water.
Since grain is generally soaked before being ground into flour, using any normal flour or grain product is out of the question. Matzos (the traditional flat bread of Passover) and Matzo meal (a flour substitute) are made under strict supervision so that from the moment the grain touches water until it finished baking is no more than 18 minutes. Any product made from one of the 5 grains without this precaution is considered Chametz, and is forbidden during Passover.
The Jewish people have a tradition of going above and beyond the basic requirements of the law, drawing extra boundaries around it to make sure they don't come close to breaking the rules. This explains many of their traditions, including that of avoiding kitniot on Passover.
For some Jewish people, mainly those of Sefardic and Yemenite descent, they avoid only the five grains during Passover. But Ashkenazic Jews (from Europe) also avoid foods classified as kitniot, sometimes translated "small things" or legumes. Kitniot (qit'niyyoth [קִטְנִיּוֹת ,קטניות , קיטניות] also spelled kitniyot, kitnyot or kiniot) includes small grains and seeds that swell when immersed in water and can be used to make flour. These grains are often grown with the 5 grains and may be frequently contaminated with them. Corn, soy, rice, beans, anise and many other items are considered kitniot.
Jews who follow the tradition of avoiding kitniot need to be aware of which kosher-certifying agencies follow this practice since Sephardic agencies may certify something kosher for Passover which would not be K-P to an Ashkenazic Jew. The Orthodox Union (OU), Star-K, and many other certifying agencies follow Ashkenazi practices.
The actual kitniot list varies depending upon different authorities, but always includes soy and corn. That, of course, is important to us because of Baby E's adverse reactions to those foods.
However, since the avoidance of Kitniot is a minhag (tradition or custom passed down from the rabbis) rather than a law or commandment directly from God, there is much more leniency with the Kitniot rules than with the Chametz rules.
Basically, a Jewish person may not own or derive any benefit from Chametz during Passover. It's all right to own or derive benefit from Kitniot during Passover, but generally Ashkenazi Jews are forbidden to eat Kitniot. There are exceptions to this, though, especially for the very young, old or ill.
As I've recently learned, there is also a tradition of allowing the use of Kitniot as a raw material in things like fermentation processes. There's a rule of nishtaneh ha’teva (changed nature) that holds that if the kitniot has been completely changed both in chemistry and in taste, then it is no longer forbidden to use in a food. Some authorities hold that it must become inedible at some point during the process to qualify as nishtaneh, while others don't. There are certain rules about very trace amounts or accidental inclusion of kitniot in foods being allowed, too.
There is no such leniency for chametz. Nothing that has ever been in any way contaminated with chametz (or with any inherently unkosher foods) can be used, no matter how refined or changed, how tiny the amount or accidental the exposure.
That's why foods such as xanthan gum grown on corn syrup can be used in some products certified Kosher for Passover. The fermentation and refining process is considered to change the corn enough that it's no longer really kitniot.
Unfortunately, nishtaneh ha’teva doesn't change the corn enough to keep Baby E from having a reaction after eating it.
Labels: allergies and adverse reactions, food, interesting tidbits, product information, spirituality
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 7:31 PM[Permanent link]
4 Comments:
I'm so glad that your husband was able to recover this excellent post!
Very informative summary. Thanks!
Very accurate indeed! An excellent explanation of my people's peculiar customs about leaven. :)
I'd add that one of the reasons kitniyot were forbidden is because flour made from kitniyot might look like chametz flour and then people might think they were allowed to use grain flour on Pesach.
I believe the concern of chametz grains being mixed in with kitniyot was more relevant in ancient times. I've never seen barley in my black beans!!
Thanks, all. Jenny F, I found two grains of barley (I think) in my lentils this past week, and my first thought was "There is chametz in my kitniot!"
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