[Avodah] Yeast isn't chameitz

[Michael Makovi]

As far as I can tell:

As far as halakha is concerned, yeast is nothing; yeast eino klum. In
ancient times, they didn't have bags of yeast, so they couldn't make a
pesak din on yeast anyway. Clearly, the ancients couldn't have ruled
yeast was hametz; Anton von Leeuwenhoek hadn't invented the microscope
yet. Back in the day, they didn't have sacks of yeast; rather, they
let dough sit out in the air, and culture yeast from the air. In fact,
they'd let this dough culture beyond being edible, till it was sour
(sourdough), and then they'd take a ball of this sourdough, and
introduce it into another batch of dough. The sourdough was used as a
yeast culture, nothing more, nothing less. The second dough, with the
sourdough added to it (to introduce yeast into it) was the real bread
that you'd eat once it leavened and was baked.

Moreover, if yeast itself were hameitz, then wine would be treif for
Pesah, because wine becomes wine davka via yeast.

Rather, hametz is any of the five grains after becoming wet, period.
Now, obviously, after becoming wet, the reaction between yeast and
gluten is what makes hametz, but halakha knows nothing of gluten and
yeast; halakha just knows that wet wheat/barley (oats is a serious
question, AFAIK) is hametz. The secrets are for G-d, and the revealed
things for us.

My mother, in fact, used to think that hametz was anything with
leavening agents in it, whether yeast, baking soda, or anything else.
She is a chemist, so she found some interesting leavening agents on
the ingredients, things no one else would have expected, but be that
as it may, this is how we did our Pesah shopping. She says, in fact,
that she never understood why wine is kosher for Passover, given the
yeast, but she took this as a hok. It was not until I became observant
and learned myself, and taught to her, the real laws of hametz, that
we finally understood these things.

Michael Makovi


-- 
Michael Makovi
מיכאל מאקאווי
mikewinddale at gmail.com
http://michaelmakovi.blogspot.com