You are what you eat, or are you?

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Link to Transcript here: https://madlik.com/2025/04/23/kosher-laws-and-identity/

Incinerated animal bones (known as bone char) are used as a filtering aid for sugar to remove unwanted color. Since the bones are completely burned, they are not edible even for a dog (aino ro’ui liachilas kelev), and no longer have a non-kosher status. In truth, non-kosher animal bones can be used for filtering even if they have not been burnt. Although the Rambam (Hilchos Maachalos Assuros 4:18) writes that one may not eat bones from a non-kosher animal, Shulchan Aruch (YD 99:1) writes that if kosher food was cooked together with non-kosher bones (that have no marrow), the food remains kosher. This is because bones have no taste which would be imparted to the food. Although one might assume that this is only permitted bidieved (after the fact) but would not be allowed lichatchila, that is not correct. Sefer Panim Me’iros (3:33) writes that one may make utensils (e.g. spoons, ladles) from the bones of non-kosher animals and there is no concern, since bones do not impart taste. In our situation, the bones are filters and do not become part of the sugar, and there is no kashrus concern for the two reasons cited above. See: (U) website.

Why then do Ashkenazim avoid eating kitniyot on Pesah?

Jacob bar Asher .. writes: There are those who prohibit eating rice and all sorts of kitniyot in a cooked dish because varieties of wheat mix into them. This is an excessive stricture and it is not customary to do so.

In early medieval Ashkenaz the custom of avoiding kitniyot seemed to have aroused some debate. The most sustained discussion of this can be found in the comments of Rabbeinu Peretz (France, 13th c.) to the Sefer Mitzvot Katan of his teacher Isaac of Corbeil, Mitzvah 2222. He writes as follows: Concerning kitniyot… our rabbis customarily prohibit altogether eating them on Pesah…. But many great sages permit them. My teacher Rabbenu Yehiel would eat the white bean called “favas” and said [that he did] so in the name of great sages. And he cited as proof that even rice [n.b. about which the Talmud briefly considers if it might also be a grain fit as matzah and hametz] … the Talmud said no one considers this [to be true] … Nevertheless, it is very difficult to permit a thing that everyone since the earliest sages treats as prohibited (for surely they did not prohibit is as true hametz, for they did not err in a matter clear to the most elementary student of the law, for it is there in Pesahim that nothing becomes hametz save the five species).

Therefore it appears that we should support the custom and prohibit all kitniyot on Pesah, not as true hametz, for that is an error, but as a decree because kitniyot are cooked, as grain is cooked, in a porridge, and were we to permit kitniyot [people] might come to substitute and permit [grain-based] porridge… and it is something grain-like (midi d’midgan ) like the five species, as it says in chapter HaSokher et haPoalim [n.b. Bava Metzia 87a where bread of kitniyot flour is considered]…, and there are places that regularly make bread of them just like from the five species [of grain] and [people] might come to substitute, for they are not Torahlearned. [Kitniyot] are not similar to vegetables… that do not resemble grain at all and will not be substituted. It is [therefore] a fit custom to refrain from all kitniyot, as I explained… Even though the Talmud permitted rice, this was specifically in their day when all were fluent in the laws of prohibition and permission, but in these latter generations it is clear that one should be restrictive, as I have said.

Rabbi Moses Isserles: The custom in Ashkenaz is to be restrictive. One should not diverge from this.

David ben Samuel haLevi (the Taz -Magen David ad locum): All this is nothing but an added restriction. But one should not diverge from it because they were accustomed to behave in this way.

The dispute in 13th century France arose again in the 18th century. Jacob Emden, known as Ya’avetz (Germany, 18th c.), the son of Tzvi Hirsch Ashkenazi, known as the Hakham Tzvi, wrote sharply against the Ashkenazic custom of avoiding kitniyot on Pesah.

I testify that my illustrious father, that sainted man, suffered greatly on account of this. Throughout Hag haMatzot he would rant and say, “If I had the strength I would abolish this terrible custom, a stringency… which causes harm and error… Because types of kitniyot are not available for the masses to eat their fill, they must bake much matzah… because of this they are not as careful with the dough as they should be… and they certainly err in a matter of karet.

And matzot are expensive; not everyone can afford as much as they need… but kitniyot are available cheaply and easily and are permitted, so that they [the restrictive school] come to prevent the joy of the holiday through this stricture that has no reason…”

Therefore I say: He who cancels this custom of avoiding eating kitniyot, I shall be with him. Hopefully other great scholars in this place will agree with me… All my days I have waited anxiously, when will I have the opportunity to publicize my father’s views to overturn this line of strictures that the public cannot abide… to establish law for [future] generations, to benefit the masses, and to remove a stumbling block from the path of my nation. This will surely be accounted a great mitzvah.

Though it seems, concerning my father’s opinion, that he did not consider permitting it without the agreement of the majority… [I]t seems he was sensitive to the talk of the people, that the town not speak ill of him and say “this is a lenient court.” When the sages of Ashkenaz agree to break the bonds of this stringency, it is clear that there would be no reason to hesitate. There is no concern about [overturning] something customary, even as a fence [around the law], nor about a latter court being unable to overturn another court unless it were greater, etc., for in a matter that causes harm this principle does not apply. See: A Teshuvah Permitting Ashkenazim to Eat Kitniyot on Pesah

In his teshuvah, Rabbi Golinkin speaks of the affirmative value in Israel of the ingathering of the exiles ( ץוביק תויולג). While that value proposition does not apply in this country, it is nevertheless the case that since the rise of the State of Israel, Ashkenazim are much more aware of our Sephardic co-religionists. In the Conservative Movement that expresses itself in our Hebrew pronunciation and in our liturgical willingness to accept prayers into our prayer book that are not part of the traditional Ashkenazic prayer service (Y’did Nefesh and Shachar Avakeshkha on Shabbat, El Nora Alilah and Lekh B’simchah on Yom Kippur). This finds expression on the shelves of the kosher supermarkets which are stocking products kosher for Passover only for those who eat kitniyot imported from Israel or produced here.

Lastly, we would like to briefly address an important point vis-à-vis this custom: is it desirable to perpetuate the differences between Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Italians, and Yemenites in Israel and the Diaspora? Perhaps it is preferable to eliminate these distinctions and create one united Jewish people? This is a worthy topic, deserving a book of its own. Indeed, an entire book has already been written on the history of the relationship between Ashkenazim and Sephardim and the author, to some extent, addressed this topic. Authorities opposed to changes in Hebrew pronunciation or variations in the prayer service often quote the verse “My son, listen to the instruction of your father and do not forsake the Torah of your mother” (Proverbs 1:8 and Pesaḥim 50b). Undoubtedly, there is something beautiful in each ethnic community preserving its unique traditions. In so doing, they honor their ancestors and their communities of origin which, in many cases, no longer exist. On the other hand, we have a desire to fulfill the verse “And who is like Your people Israel, one united nation on Earth” (I Chronicles 17:21), which -- according to a beautiful Agaddah (legend) found in the Talmud (Berakhot 6a) -- is the verse inscribed in the Tefillin which God puts on every morning! If we want to become “one united nation on Earth”, we must start the slow process of unifying our laws and customs. In 1950, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel enacted several Takkanot regarding marriage intended to unite the Jewish people.(20) Later on, the Chief Rabbinate of the IDF published a Siddur with a unified prayer service for IDF soldiers and it behooves us to continue these trends. Unfortunately, today there is constant movement from the Sephardic to the Ashkenazic, from the lenient to the stringent. Sephardic rabbis dress like Ashkenazim, study halakhah like Ashkenazim and issue halakhic rulings like Ashkenazim. Instead of the moderate Sephardic tradition moderating the Ashkenazim, we are witnessing the opposite process. With regard to our case, instead of Ashkenazim starting to eat rice and kitniyot on Pesaḥ, in accordance with the halakhah, there are Sephardim who are adopting this "mistaken custom which has no rhyme or reason" (see above, V, 2). Hence, the issue under discussion has the potential to unite the Jewish people without losing anything. Indeed, the Chief Rabbinate of the IDF ruled many years ago that all IDF soldiers are permitted to eat rice and kitniyot on Pesaḥ,(23), but this was later rescinded. Nonetheless, we should adopt this ruling in Israel and the Diaspora. In so doing, we will differentiate between halakhah and a mistaken custom, enhance the joy of the festival, ease the burden of those with limited means, and move another step closer to uniting the Jewish people throughout the world. David Golinkin Jerusalem The Third Day of Hanukkah 5776