After 800 Years, Rice, Beans, and Corn Are Now OK for Passover (2024)

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After 800 Years, Rice, Beans, and Corn Are Now OK for Passover? ›

The ban has been in place since the 13th century, but it's always been controversial. In fairly recent history, it's been overturned. According to NPR, in December of 2015 an international group of conservative rabbis made the decision that it's acceptable to eat rice, beans, and corn during Passover.

The original reasons behind the custom of not eating kitniyot during Passover are not clear. Suggestions include: The grains which form chametz are commonly found mixed into kitniyot. Therefore, someone who cooks kitniyot may inadvertently eat chametz.

These new kosher foods have always been a part of the diet of Sephardic Jews, whose ancestry goes back to the Middle East, North Africa and other areas around the Mediterranean Sea. Legumes and grains are considered kosher, and rice, bean and lentil dishes have long been served at Passover.

Traditionally, the category of forbidden foods on Passover — known as hametz — was defined as the fermented products of five grains: wheat, spelt, barley, oats and rye.

Similarly, potatoes and tapioca are not considered kitniyot. Although today, they are turned into starch and are the basis for most Passover cakes and cookies, they are permitted because, historically, the minhag was to accept them.

During Passover, Ashkenazi Jews traditionally stay away from not only leavened foods like bread, namely barley, oats, rye, spelt, and wheat, but also legumes, rice, seeds, and corn. The ban has been in place since the 13th century, but it's always been controversial. In fairly recent history, it's been overturned.

The sacks used to store kitenyot and chometz were often interchanged, and since they were generally stored in the same areas, it was thought that they could be easily mixed up. Many brands of peanut butter are sweetened with corn syrup, so that means they have two kinds of kitenyot in them.

Along with wheat, barley, rye and spelt, oats are one of the “five grains,” which can become chametz when brought into contact with water. On Passover, it is forbidden to eat or even own chametz. Oatmeal (and most other oat products) is therefore not kosher for Passover.

The fact that quinoa wasn't a known food when the prohibition was enacted, while an important factor, is by itself insufficient to exclude quinoa from kitniyot, explained Rabbi Rabinowitz.

5. Popcorn. Good news for movie lovers — if you eat kitniyot during Passover, you can keep your popcorn throughout the festival.

What nuts are forbidden on Passover? ›

Raw whole, slivered, or chopped nuts are acceptable without Passover certification whether in or out of the shell and even if they are steam pasteurized, except if they are [a] blanched or roasted (all varieties), [b] finely ground into a powder, such as almond flour, [c] contain BHT or BHA, [d] shelled pecan pieces, ...

The pasta we eat year round is made from wheat flour and is not baked under those conditions. For this reason we do not eat it on Passover. Likewise we do not eat pasta, and other products, made from barley, rye, oats, spelt or their derivatives.

STAR-K tested quinoa to see if it would rise. The result was sirchon: unlike chometz grains which would undergo leavening, the quinoa simply decayed, rendering it fit for Passover use.

Although there are many reasons given for the minhag of not eating kitniyot on Pesach, none of them apply to coffee and cocoa. Kitniyot refers to grains and beans that in some way resemble the five grains (wheat, barley, rye, oat and spelt) that can become chametz.

The laws of kashrut always apply, but not all Jews keep kosher. Non-kosher foods include bacon and shrimp, among many others. Soybeans are also considered kitniyot. For vegetarians who do not eat it, getting through Passover can be difficult without a plant-based protein like tofu.

On the other hand, potatoes (see below), coffee, tea, garlic, nuts, radishes and olives and not treated as kitniyot (see Sha'arei Teshuvah 453:1, Chayei Adam 127:7 and others). Igros Moshe (O.C. III:63) assumes that peanuts are not kitniyot but notes that some have a custom to be machmir.

The kitniyot controversy harks back to medieval times. Ashkenazi rabbis decided that eating kitniyot should be prohibited because their similarity to chametz might confuse people. It's a little more complicated, but that's the gist. Thus, cutting out kitniyot became the minhag (custom) among Ashkenazi Jews.

Matzos which are labeled “Not Kosher for Passover” are made without a full-time mashgiach present during production, and the water used in kneading the dough is not mayim she'lanu (specially drawn water).

Halachos of kitniyot

Although one may not eat kitniyot , one may own and derive benefit from kitniyot. Therefore, on Pesach one may keep cans of sweet corn in their property or feed millet to their parrot.

Corn tortillas are therefore acceptable for consumption on Passover for Sephardic Jews and others who eat kitniyot. In Israel, Passover-certified corn tortillas are commercially available. Flour tortillas are typically made from wheat, which is one of the five forbidden grains.