[Avodah] Knobbelach

[Zev Sero]

On 9/07/2013 12:53 PM, Kenneth Miller wrote:
> R' Zev Sero wrote:
>
>> >On Pesach people avoid any association with chametz. People
>> >even avoid saying "bread" on Pesach, substituting "chometz"
>> >instead.
> I've never heard this before. Which groups are these?

I'm not sure that it's confined to any specific "group".  I think it was
common in Litta, both among chassidim and misnagdim.

My great-great-grandmother once took a dress to the tailor on chol hamoed
Pesach to be altered, and told him "es iz tzu shmol" (it's too narrow).
The tailor took one look and exclaimed "shmol?! es is doch..." (narrow?!
but it's...), but before he could get out the word "breit" (wide) my g-g-m
said "sshh, chometz!"    Now that, I think, was an extreme to which most
people wouldn't go; even if they didn't say "breit" meaning "bread", they
wouldn't think to avoid the same word in its meaning of "broad".


>> >And I understand that there are many Sefardim who don't eat
>> >chickpeas on Pesach because "chummus" sounds too much like
>> >"chametz".  So it makes sense that if garlic's name is
>> >associated in people's minds with chometz, they would avoid
>> >it.

> Does this mean that there are some who don't eat sweetbreads on Pesach?

I think that association only exists in English, and there are few people
whose minhagim developed in an English-speaking ocuntry.  But it's possible,
and it would be an interesting minhag to deliberately adopt.

Also bear in mind that a lot of people never eat sweetbreads at all, even
during the year, because they don't like them.

-- 
Zev Sero               A citizen may not be required to offer a 'good and
zev at sero.name          substantial reason' why he should be permitted to
                        exercise his rights. The right's existence is all
                        the reason he needs.
                            - Judge Benson E. Legg, Woollard v. Sheridan