[Avodah] "Orez" may be millet!

[Dr. Josh Backon]

Chevra, last year I had a post on AVODAH (enclosed below) on corn as
kitniyot. There was a problem in the old German used by the Maharil
on "orez" = "hirzen". I just asked on the Usenet group sci.language
(which is the place where linguists ask and answer questions) and
got back the answer that "hirzen" is millet!!

Here's the original post: look carefully at the 2nd paragraph.
===============================================
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 06:37:39
From: "Dr. Josh Backon" <backon at vms.huji.ac.il>
Subject: 
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol17//avodah/getindex.cgi?section=C#CORN 
AS KITNIYOT>Corn as kitniyot



Now that the kitchen is off limits and has been cordoned off (electrified
barbed wire and machine gun emplacements like at the Berlin Wall) and
as a reminder of Yetziyat Mitzraim and Girush Sfarad, I've been evicted
to eat at a restaurant for 2 days :-) I had more time to check mareh
mekomot about corn and kitniyot.

Both the MAHARIL (Hilchot Afiyat haMatzot) and the Leket Yosher (I Orach
Chayim) translate SHIFON (rye) [one of the 5 species] as "korn". By
the way, the Maharil translates "orez" [a.k.a. "rice"] as "hirzen",
with "dochen" [millet] translated as RICE (resh yud yud zayin). So
what we think of rice (Uncle Ben's) may be the wrong item. The gemara
in Pesachim may have been talking about millet!! An expert in German
I consulted couldn't give any explanation for the meaning of "hirzen'
[except for "irzen" = confused].

After almost 58 years, I finally figured out why the American breakfast
cereal from corn is called KIX. The Chatam Sofer III Even HaEzer 52
translates (American) "corn" [tiras] as "kokritz"; the Yeshuot Malko I 17
"kakaritze" (likewise the Aruch haShulchan who uses the term "kikas')
whereas the Chelkat Yaakov (Hea'orot #453) and the Chayim She'al 47
translate (American) corn as 'Turkish wheat' [tirkishen veitz].

The very fact that these poskim thought it looked like wheat (as a
matter of fact, corn growing in the field takeh does look like wheat)
may have brought our American corn into the category of kitniyot.

Last but not least: the language of the Chelkat Yaakov Orach Chayim 195
#1) regarding "tiras" is strange. Lichora, he differentiates between
corn and kitniyot! "rak pat shel tiras u'kitniyot u'k'doma".

CHAG KASHER V'SAMEACH

Josh