[Avodah] Matza made with < 50% rice or corn

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 05:31:20AM +0200, Ben Waxman wrote:
: From: Meir Rabi 
:> Any one ever heard of Matza made with a large proportion of corn or
:> rice? for Ashkenazim?
:> Any reason other than tradition with a very small "t" for this?

: Sure there is; it is on sale every year, kosher for Pesach. But I have
: never seen shmura matza made this way.

Matzos mitzvah for non-Teimanim will always contain just flour and water
and nothing else.

As for qitniyos... R' Kook took it for granted that qitniyos, as long
as they're cooked within 18 minutes, should be okay. How can they be
any more assur than the 5 minim? It caused an uproar, this not being
how most of us pasqen.

An earlier matir was the SA haRav.

However, most are noheig not to eat qitniyos even if they never got
wet. So there is no way to bake them into matzah. (See this article
by R' Yaaqov Luban and R' Eli Gersten noting this paradox:
<http://www.ou.org/index.php/jewish_action/article/67027>.)

It is interesting, but perhaps my speculation is valueless, to map the
machloqes against the various reasons given for the minhag of qitniyos:

Those who were afraid of flour that might be in the qitniyos due to
shared silos would logically say that the qitniyos can be no worse than
flour. Any flour in my peas would be baked within 18 min of getting wet,
so I'm okay.

Those who base it on Rava not allowing the use of lentil flour by amei
haaretz (Pesachim 40b) lest they get confused, and bring up the whole
"anything makable into a porrige might be confused with wheat" would
perhaps have reason to be stringent regardless of how long it's wet.
After all, dry qitniyos rise no slower than wet qitniyos. (In the sense
that both don't.)

Side note about porridges: This dates back to a period in the Dark Ages
when the dominant culture Ashkenazim lived amongst had lost so much
science and technology that many towns didn't have a mill that could
produce baking-quality flour. People's diet shifted to a lot more porriges
and gruel, as bread went up in price. (Bread didn't make a comeback for
the commoners until the 15th cent.) This would explain why porridge is
used as a definition of what is too grain-like for Pesach.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It is a glorious thing to be indifferent to
micha at aishdas.org        suffering, but only to one's own suffering.
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