When Are You Allowed to Eat Leaven Again During Passover

Close up of plate of Matzah. © Tetra Images/Tetra Images/Corbis

Editor'due south note, April seven, 2020: As Jews worldwide observe the Passover holiday nether the auspicies of the COVID-xix pandemic, with virtual seders and quarantine-driven riffs on almanac traditions, here'southward a expect at the dietary rules and customs that make the viii days special.

The Torah couldn't brand things any clearer. From Exodus 12:14 and xv: "This day shall be for you a memorial twenty-four hour period, and y'all shall go on it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, every bit statute forever, y'all shall go on it as a feast. Seven days you lot shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first mean solar day until the seventh mean solar day, that person shall be cutting off from State of israel."

But in the centuries since, food has gotten a lot more complicated, and the Jews who fled Egypt were fruitful and multiplied, melding their ain traditions with regional customs. Today the rules governing keeping kosher for Passover aren't as clear as they were in ancient Judea. Erik'due south explainer on the Lenten fast taught me much virtually the Catholic tradition, and so I'll repay the favor with this guide for my Gentile friends on how American Jews keep kosher for Passover. I should preface this department by saying that fifty-fifty among the most observant Jews, disagreements over what is and what is not kosher for Passover persist. Many foods, like jellies or butter, should be considered allowable given their ingredients, but the equipment used to produce them is non cleaned and inspected by rabbinic observers. This is why yous may see specially wrapped or branded products of everyday appurtenances for those Jews who look for that extra degree of precaution. Consider this a brief piece of a very complicated discussion.

The Obvious No-Nos:

Wheat, spelt, barley, oats and rye. Known collectively as chometz, these grains are universally left out of diets during Passover week. This means no Apple Jacks, bagels, biscuits, cakes, cookies, danishes, empanadas, ficelles, gyros, hoagies, Italian bread, jelly donuts, knishes, lefse, muffins, naan, oatmeal, pasta, pizza, quiches, rugelach, strombolis, tacos, upside-down cake, Viennese wafers, waffles, yeast or zwieback.

Unfortunately, these rules as well mean that all beer and virtually liquor is forbidden. The only booze immune is wine, of which there are kosher-for-Passover varieties.

It is customary to clean all the chometz out of one'due south house. Some totally cleanse the house, others board up closets, others sell the grains to their non-Jewish neighbors (you can assistance side by side twelvemonth!) and buy it dorsum at the end of the holiday, others sell their chometz on the Cyberspace to a stranger and buy it back fifty-fifty though the nutrient never moves.

The Mostly Assumed No-Nos:

Rice and beans. The realm of kitniyot (legumes) is amid the grayest of areas. Joan Nathan is the Barefoot Contessa of Jewish cooking and she says it all-time in her volume Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France:

In the Eye Ages, rice, lentils, chickpeas, and fava beans were all footing into flour, which in that state could be confused with the truthful grains. The list continued to abound afterwards corn and beans came to the Old Globe from the New. In France, where mustard seeds grow, mustard was added to the list, because the seeds could be intertwined and confused with other plants.

The confusion principle is largely the reason why many American Jews abstained from eating whatever corn or rice products on Passover for decades. According to Nathan, a biblical ruling was fabricated in the 12th and 13th centuries that "any grain that can be cooked and baked like matzo confused with the biblical grains." Therefore, non kosher for Passover.... until terminal year, when, every bit reported by Danny Lewis for Smithsonian.com, the Bourgeois movement declared that kitinyot were now rabinically approved for consumption during Passover. Whether this changed the ingrained habits of observant Jews remains to be seen, but the shift was noteworthy nonetheless.

The anti-legume tradition has been mostly maintained by Ashkenazic Jews, or those whose ancestors come from eastern Europe. Pre-Inquisition Jews from Kingdom of spain never followed these rules, and thus Sephardim, who by definition are Jews descended from those who escaped Espana but also include those who are from South America, Asia, the Heart East and Africa, do non either. The vast bulk of American Jews, 95 percent or more than, are Ashkenazic.

Even at present in an era of detailed FDA-mandated labeling, where the confusion Nathan wrote about is nigh incommunicable, the tradition continues. This is why you come across the fabled "Mexican Coke" brand an advent each jump. Fabricated with pikestaff sugar and non loftier-fructose corn syrup, the imported soda is good to go. (Relatedly, what tastes improve? Regular Coke or Kosher for Passover Coke? The New Republic did a taste test.)

Matzo. For reasons that are unknown to most Jews, some people willingly eat matzo at other times of the year. These matzo boxes are labeled "not kosher for Passover" and should not be eaten as a part of observing the holiday. The departure? Rabbinic supervision to ensure that whatever matzo made for Passover is untainted by any leavening agents. There is also a fence over whether egg matzo is allowed. While clearly being verboten for the Passover seder (some other Torah passage states that only the flour and water version may be used during the ritual), eating egg matzo during the rest of the calendar week is left upwardly to the observant.

Quinoa. The New York Times had a adept wrap-upwardly of the quinoa loophole, which is rather ingenious. Since the grain is a relative newcomer to Western diets, the grain wholly bypassed not only the Talmudic scholars but the "confusion principle" as explained above. Ashkenazic rabbis never had the hazard to exclude it from the vacation, and so by default it became kosher for Passover. Now concerns are being raised over whether the manufacturing process is make clean of any of the banned grains. The Orthodox Wedlock, the authority on such matters, has declared quinoa commanded for consumption during the vacation. The story of how they came to that decision, from NPR:

"This rabbi went all the way to Republic of bolivia and Peru," Elefant reports. "He saw that quinoa grows near the top of the mountain and grain grows near the bottom of the mountain." Thus, there was no take chances for the intermingling that might happen with crops planted near wheat. Another plus for quinoa, says Elefant: "Many rabbis are of the opinion that annihilation that wasn't office of the original custom is not included in the custom."

All that was left for the rabbis was inspection of factories that package quinoa to encounter if forbidden grains are processed on the same equipment that processes information technology. And some passed. Those factories that got the all-clear now produce quinoa that will conduct the OU-P symbol, pregnant they're kosher for Passover.

Fair Game:

Most everything else. All in all, keeping kosher for Passover isn't all that difficult, peculiarly if y'all have feel with the Atkins or Paleo diets. I find myself eating more healthy meals this calendar week than usual, as I am forced to cook at home and use copious fruits and vegetables to fill out my nutrition. If I'm cooking meat, I make my own marinades or sauces, and if I'thou eating a salad, my own dressings. Don't put shrimp salad or a salary cheeseburger on your matzo—the normal kosher laws still pertain: no shellfish, pork products or mixing of meat and cheese is allowed.

Cigarettes: According to the Associated Press, a rabbinic group in Israel has, for the first time, declared certain cigarettes as Kosher for Passover.

I concluding notation:

If you re-read the passage from Exodus, yous'll discover that it declares that the holiday should be observed for seven days, equally is done in mod solar day State of israel, and not the eight customarily observed by American Jews. In the era earlier standardized calendars, Jews in the Diaspora (any expanse outside of Israel) added an extra twenty-four hour period to ensure that their holiday overlapped with the official celebration. This is as well why American Jews accept two nights of seders, where in Israel they but accept 1.

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Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-gentiles-guide-to-keeping-kosher-for-passover-165359211/#:~:text=Seven%20days%20you%20shall%20eat,be%20cut%20off%20from%20Israel.%E2%80%9D

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