Pesach is icumen up

[lethargic_man]

Bah, ran out of חמץ biscuits too soon, and had a slight job (well, three shops) finding somewhere that was still selling food-of-the-gods, a.k.a. Rakusens flapjack. (Well, I, for one, find it more Moroccan moreish than chocolate.) I was amused, however, to hear one of the employees of Kosher Kingdom using his walkie-talkie to round up people for מנחה.

Meanwhile, when I pointed out to my brother (not the Modern Orthodox one) the ruling of the Masorti rabbinate in Israel on the subject of קיטניות, he replied, "actually last year i ate rice on 1 of the 8 days (cos i'm 1/8 sephardic)." :o)

Comments

not chametz

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

Kitniyot, rice, corn and seeds like sunflower seeds are not chametz. The only thing we shall not eat is any produced with the five grains except it is turned into Matza. The Ashkenazi just made this silly custom with the kitniyot etc. because they couldn't see the difference. The Sephardi check every rice corn and kitniyot. It is not necessary nowadays as we know it is already checked by the industry. Someone who is for example allergic to certain grains which is often the case with wheat could sue the industrie if they put it into rice or kitniyot or whatever and sell it as rice and kitniyot only.
Chaim (I mean one of the Rabbis in my Shul) said the Ashkenazi prohibition only remained a custom which you can keep or leave.