In past years, we’ve enjoyed blogging about the many ingredients useful in Passover baking that aren’t verboten. These have ranged from the familiar (almond meal) to the unusual (chestnut flour) and finally the obscure (teff). But our indisputable favorite is the South American grain-like seed, quinoa. We posted ideas for breakfast cereal, cakes, salads and companion dishes, all using this unique ingredient, which as it happens, also qualifies as what’s called a ‘superfood’.
So imagine our disappointment when we found out that some rabbis are considering classifying quinoa as “kitniyot”, thus rendering it verboten to Ashkenazic Jews. The current debate is revolving largely around the halachic question of whether or not the category of kitniyot, or legumes that bear a resemblance to grains, can or should be expanded. The OU is not certifying quinoa as kosher for Passover, while one of its main competitors, Star-K, is and has done for many years now (while the OU has dallied).
The primary problem that the OU is facing is that the late Rav Moshe Feinstein, widely accepted as a decisor of Jewish law, clearly stated that new items should not be incorporated into the kitniyot category. Which makes a whole lot of sense considering that with modern technology/branding/marketing/high literacy rates, it’s hard to imagine someone mistaking beans for flour.
But that’s not good enough for the official OU line, whose CEO said, “We can’t certify quinoa because it looks like a grain and people might get confused.”
Is this fracas merely about business competition and one company trying to cast doubts on the reputation of a competitor? Is the OU’s stringency part of what appears to be a larger trend of making observant Judaism that much more complicated (because some equate increased rules with increased religiosity)? Some skeptics may even wonder if there’s some kind of financial element at play (though we haven’t yet managed to figure one out.)
As for us, we can’t much understand why the category of kitniyot should be expanded, when in this day and age there’s very little reason for its existence aside from the many years of religious tradition. And while that’s a good enough reason to continue with forbidding kitniyot in their currently accepting forms, adding more just seems nonsensical.
Full coverage in this week’s IJN: Fifth Question: Is quinoa kosher for Passover or not?
I think kitnyot should boil down to a question of what one commonly eats during the year. Sitting on my cupboard shelf is a container of soy flour and another of corn meal. I bake with both, and my lunch today is on bread that includes corn meal as one of its ingredients (Combo Bread or Broa. Bread with soy flour is often called Cornell Bread.) My guess is that back in Rashi’s time, people routinely ate chick pea flour the way I use soy flour. I’m not sure why chestnut flour is not kitnyot but my guess is that by spring, it was gone so not an issue, or maybe Medieval Jews did not use it. Either way, in my kitchen kitnyot has a strong, empirical basis even though I love and miss beans.
Totally agreed – especially with the latter point. Being a vegetarian, I’m a serious kitniyot eater and that’s the hardest part about Passover. Not the flour, or baked goods. But the chickpeas!