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:

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.

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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.

Too bad it's only once a year

Yesterday the girls and I drove to a neighboring state to find a grocery store I'd heard was the place to get Kosher food in the area. We went to visit my friend JT afterwards, since she lives over that direction. That was a lot of fun.

The trip was a great success. The store had quite a variety of Kosher for Passover items, almost all kitniot-free. Kitniot-free is a big deal for us, because it means that the food can have no trace of soy or corn, among other things. It was amazingly easy to find foods free of all our allergens.

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Most of these products are available only for a few week around Passover, and aren't produced the rest of the year.

I was so excited to find such a variety of foods and other household items we can use. Things like single-serving juice for the kids, ketchup, soda pop, breakfast cereal, candles, toothpaste, dish soap, potato chips, candy, pickles, marshmallows, canned goods and juice. I was especially excited about the ketchup and pickles. They're made with no vinegar at all, either apple or corn, so I'll be able to eat them for the first time in ages.

And the mixes! Cake mix, muffin mix, pancake mix and more. I thought I'd never be able to cook from a ready-made mix again. They were expensive, so I just bought a few for special occasions. The potato stix and the Crispy-O's cereal were the main things I bought quite a few of.

I even found some soups and pre-made meals we can have. You have no idea of the excitement and the feeling of luxury--to actually be able to eat food that someone else cooked! Hooray!

The store has a Kosher meat counter and a Kosher deli, and carries a lot of meats and other products that are Kosher for Pesach year round. That means I can get lamb, beef and free-range chicken that I can trust. Much of it is less expensive than the local butcher, and, unlike the meat in stores closer to home, the beef and lamb is grass-fed. We still have about a quarter to a third of the meat we bought from a local farmer in our freezer, but once that runs out the Kosher meat counter is going to be quite a boon.

The store didn't have some of the baking supplies I was hoping to find, such as vanilla, baking powder, white distilled vinegar, flavoring extracts and food coloring. But I found a lot of things. We've been sampling them over the last two days, and most of them are really good.

Baby E's favorite thing so far has been the juice. She is just beside herself with excitement that there are little squeeze packets of juice with little bitty straws, like she sees other kids drinking, and she can have them! The straws seem to be narrow enough to avoid causing aspiration issues, and Baby E loves them. I was a bit nervous giving her the juice because it contains ascorbic acid, which is normally something grown on corn that causes reactions for her. But she drank the whole packet and she didn't even get slightly red cheeks--amazing!

It was amazing to actually have so much selection that I couldn't buy everything they had that was okay for us. Usually when I find something ready-made that we can have, it's such an unusual event that I buy whatever it is. There's never more than a handful of available options to choose from.

I filled two shopping carts to overflowing with a year's supply of OU-P foods. The girls were getting tired and a bit whiny toward the end, but it helped that people kept stopping to talk to them.

I was so impressed with the other people that were also shopping in the Kosher for Passover sections. Most of them seemed to know each other and would stop to greet each other and chat. Many of them said hello to us and asked where we were from, since they didn't recognize us.

They were so very warm and friendly--happy to answer questions, engage us in conversation, and quick with offers of help. Even when they found I wasn't Jewish, they were sympathetic and eager to make suggestions for finding foods free of corn and soy, explain symbols on the packaging, and help me learn how to pronouce words like Ashkenazic and kitniot.

I tend to feel a kinship with Jewish people, because--at least from my perspective--we worship the same God, we read the same Torah, and our faith shares the same roots. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the forefathers of my faith too, even though I'm not descended from them by blood. I grew up on stories of the prophets and heroes like Joshua, Samuel, and David, and strong women worthy of emulation like Ruth, Esther and, of course, the woman described in Proverbs 31.

My Lord was a Jew, and His message and salvation came first to the Jew, and then to the Gentile. The New Testament speaks of those Gentiles who follow Christ as having been adopted or grafted in to the family of God's children. The Jews are God's chosen people, but we get to share in that heritage by His grace.

I'm afraid this must be highly offensive to those Jewish people who do not believe Jesus is the Messiah--the fact that I feel I have a kinship with them because of my faith. It must be a bit awkward to have someone feel such a brotherhood when, from your perspective, it's worse than non-existent. To them, I'm sure it seems a blasphemy. To me, the thought of sharing such a widespread and diverse family community is a lovely one.

Children's Prayers

I love sitting down with AJ and M&M at the end of the day to read them a Bible story, talk to them and pray with them. Today we read about Job, which turned into a really interesting conversation about real love, faithfulness, and Heaven.

I always ask them if there's anything they'd like to talk to God about. Until recently, they've wanted me to do the actual praying, although they've been willing to suggest topics.

AJ has been beginning to pray on her own after I pray for some time now, and it's so sweet to hear her talk to God in her own words. Just the last couple of nights, M&M has wanted to pray aloud for the first time, too.

Tonight, these were their prayers:

AJ: "Dear Jesus, I love you. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Amen."

M&M: "Dear God, thank you for making all my favorite friends. And you're one of them."

Superbowl Party

We had a good time at our friends' house for the Superbowl party last night. It was just our church home group (a.k.a. care group)--three families at the moment.

When DH told Malamute Rescue Couple that I didn't want to have Baby E around corn chips, they were quite willing to substitute potato chips instead. There was no popcorn, either. Just lots of cookies, potato chips and dip, sub sandwiches and other snacks.

Nothing crumbly and corn-based, but of course nearly everything would have had corn and/or soy derivatives in it. We just tried to be as careful as possible about cross-contamination and exposure.

I brought some allergy-safe food to share, and everyone tried to be careful about not having traces of other foods on their hands when serving themselves from our safe food. Malamute Rescue Lady even swept the floor after most of the eating was done.



AJ and M&M had a fabulous time playing with the four kids close to them in age while the adults watched the game and visited.

Baby E slept in DH's arms for most of the game. When she finally woke up, she was in a great mood.



Baby E was especially excited to see her friend Baby H, who just turned 1. The two girls are already great friends.

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E kept making "baby" signs toward H, but when we would ask her if H was a baby, E's reply was an emphatic "NO!" I'm not sure if she was saying "baby" to refer to H, or if she was trying to tell H about her doll.



DH and Malamute Rescue guy had fun helping the two babies interact with each other.

The men in our care group are such tender, caring, involved fathers and husbands. They really encourage each other in that. One of them has a bumper sticker that says, "Real Men Love Jesus." These guys truly try to live out in their lives the idea that "Real Men Love." Of course, it's the women too, so I guess I should say "Real Christians Love."

We've been talking a lot in our church services and in our home group lately about the commandments to love God and each other, and how those two are intertwined. I hope it's true that one of the greatest signs in our lives that we are Christians is the love we show to those around us. That's certainly our goal, as individuals and as a group.

One of the most valuable things about our home group is the sense of family. Loving and supporting each other, encouraging each other in our spiritual walk and in living Christlike lives, holding each other accountable, praying with and for each other, helping each other in tangible ways, and studying the Bible together. That's what it's all about. It's a growth process, of course--one I'm really glad to be a part of.



Speaking of loving one another, Baby E even shared her precious doll with Baby H--something she doesn't do often. Baby E and Baby H kept handing it back and forth, cuddling and kissing it. H really loved the doll. After Baby E had been letting H hold her doll for a while, Baby H grabbed Baby E and gave her a big kiss. It was awfully cute.

Shortly after we got home, Baby E started saying "ow" and patting her head and her tummy, and then she had diarrhea. She slept through the night, but this morning she's grumpy, tantrumy to an extreme, and uncomfortable in her head and tummy. The mild rash on her cheeks has been a near-constant this week, so that's nothing new. But her behavior is consistent with a mild allergic reaction.

Even though we tried to be as careful as possible, apparently she got into traces of an allergen. It could have been from the floor, from one of the other kids' hands, or something like that. With that many people and that much food around, it was pretty much inevitable.

Short of keeping her in a bubble, it is truly impossible to keep Baby E from ever being exposed to trace amounts of her allergens. But we don't want her health issues to isolate her and keep her from ever doing anything. We want her to have as normal a life as possible--playing with friends, going places, sharing her toys.

We mimimize the risks as much as possible, and maybe we need to look at doing more handwashing (of both Baby E and the other kids) on occasions like this. But we have to balance the risks with the need for Baby E to be able to interact socially with people. It's not something we would do every day, but occasionally I think it is worth risking the likelihood of a mild reaction for Baby E to be able to take part in a valuable life experience.

Even though she feels miserable today, I think Baby E would say that getting to play with her friends last night was worth it.