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Kitniyot (, qitniyyoth) is a Hebrew word meaning legumes. During the Passover holiday, however, the word kitniyot (or kitniyos in Ashkenazi dialects) takes on a broader meaning to include grains and seeds such as rice, corn, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds, in addition to legumes such as beans, peas, and lentils.
The Torah prohibits Jews from eating chametz during Passover. Chametz is defined as leaven made from the "five species of grain" (wheat, barley, and three similar grains). Food made from any other species is not considered chametz. However, among Ashkenazi Jews and some Sephardic customs, the custom ( minhag) during Passover is to refrain from not only products of the five grains but also other grains and legumes, known as kitniyot, even though they are not chametz.
Some Sephardi Jews and Yemenite Jews have not traditionally observed a prohibition on eating kitniyot on Passover, although some groups do abstain from the use of dried pulses during Passover.
Since wheat flour only becomes chametz after it is ground and then mixed with water, one might assume that the kitniyot custom does not forbid kitniyot that were never ground or never came in contact with water. By this logic, it might be permitted to eat fresh kitniyot (like whole beans), or processed kitniyot which never came in contact with water (like certain squeezed oils or toasted solids). In fact, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu stated that the "first Ashkenazim in Jerusalem before the establishment of the state allowed fresh legumes and only prohibited dry legumes, but when the students of the Vilna Gaon and Baal Shem Tov came to Israel, they ‘brought with them’ from Europe the prohibition against fresh legumes". Conservative rabbis have ruled to permit fresh kitniyot."A Teshuvah Permitting Ashkenazim to Eat Kitniyot on Pesah", Amy Levin and Avram Israel Reisner, source
In the 1930s, Maxwell House coffee hired the Joseph Jacobs advertising firm to market to a Jewish demographic. The agency hired a rabbi to research coffee, resulting in a determination that the coffee bean is more like a berry than a bean, thus making it kosher for Passover.
The original reasons behind the custom of not eating kitniyot during Passover are not clear. Suggestions include:
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Even in the early days of the kitniyot prohibition, some posek opposed it, among them Rabbenu Yerucham (14th century), who called it a "foolish custom", Jacob ben Asher (14th century), who called it "an unnecessary stringency", and Samuel ben Solomon of Falaise, one of the first to write about the custom the 13th century, who called it "mistaken".Golinkin, "The Kitniyot Dilemma, Kolot Vol 6, No. 3, page 10, Spring 2013
More recently, rabbis including Rav Moshe Feinstein did not advocate abandoning the custom, but opposed expanding the list of forbidden kitniyot.Igrot Moshe, Orah Hayyim 3. 63
Reform Jewish authorities, such as the Responsa Committee of the Reform Jewish Movement, the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada, have ruled in favor of permitting kitniyot. Reform Judaism first formally permitted eating kitniyot during Passover in the 19th century.
While many Conservative Jews observe the tradition of avoiding kitniyot during Passover, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, an authoritative body in Conservative Judaism, issued two responsa in December 2015 that said it was now permissible to eat these previously prohibited foods throughout the world. These responsa were based on a 1989 responsa by the Responsa Committee of the Israeli Conservative Movement that permitted Conservative Jews in Israel to eat kitniyot. While eating kitniyot has become more common in Israel, due in large part to the influence of Sephardic Jewish food customs, it is not yet clear whether Conservative Jews in other parts of the world will embrace the new rulings or continue to refrain from kitniyot.
Some rabbis, such as Orthodox rabbi David Bar-Hayim and Conservative rabbi David Golinkin, have argued that the prohibition of kitniyot, while appropriate in Eastern Europe where the Ashkenazi tradition began, should not apply to the United States or Israel. According to The Forward, some Israelis are choosing a more permissive rabbinical interpretation of kitniyot, which allows for the consumption of a wider range of formerly banned items, and some Ashkenazi Jews in Israel who are married to Sephardic Jews have adopted the Sephardic custom. While the Orthodox Union and other Orthodox organizations still maintain that the prohibition is binding on all Ashkenazic Jews worldwide, Orthodox Union Kosher maintains a kitniyot hechsher intended for non-Ashkenazic Jews who consume kitniyot on Passover.
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