[Avodah] Taaroves kitniyos

[David Cohen]

The policy of the Israeli rabbinate and other kashrus organizations is to
label any product containing even small amount of kitniyos derivatives as
"only for those who eat kitniyos."  In recent years, a number of rabbanim
have "made headlines" by stating that the prohibition of being mevatel an
issur lechatchila does not apply to kitniyos, so the many products where
less than half of the mixture is from kitniyos (which are batel berov) may
be eaten by Ashkenazim, despite the labeling.  To simplify things, let's
assume we're talking about a case where the mixture was made before Pesach.
 I have never seen anybody explicitly defend the position that "ein
mevatlin isur lechatchila" *does* apply to kitniyos.

One of the best known advocates of this lenient position was R' Yitzchak
Elchanan Spektor (Be'er Yitzchak OC 11), who makes the case that "ein
mevatlin issur lechatchila" does not apply to kitniyos, and thus permits an
alcoholic beverage whose majority ingredient is honey, and whose
minority ingredient is buckwheat .  He was disputing the conclusion of the
Nishmas Adam (Shabbos uMoadim 119: 33) who maintains that this beverage is
forbidden.  What is interesting, though, is that the Nishmas Adam does not
actually base his opposition on "ein mevatlin isur lechatchila" at all, but
rather on the fact that in this particular beverage, the
kitniyos ingredient is what gives it its taste (just as the chametz
ingredient is what gives taste to kutach haBavli, sheichar haMadi, etc.),
so it is not batel at all, despite being in the minority.  Thus, the Chayei
Adam does not really address the question of bitul kitniyos lechatchila,
which is the only relevant question when it comes to the many products that
are labeled as "for kitniyos eaters," but where the kitnniyos ingredient
has no noticeable contribution to the taste, if it is even clear from the
ingredient list which ingredient is kitniyos at all.

When I asked about this, I was told that "the minhag is not to eat taaroves
kitniyos," except when there's some other extenuating circumstance.  (I've
already received my pesak, so I'm posting here for the purpose of
theoretical discussion only.)  It is clear that practically speaking, this
has been the practice of the last few generations, since we have come to
rely on kashrus agencies, and their policy is not to "certify for
Ashkenazim" anything with even a trace amount of kitniyos.  The kashrus
agencies are presumably just following the same approach to bitul that they
take with bitul of "real" issurim, which was discussed at length in this
forum a few months ago.

As I see it, since we are dealing with a minhag, the most important
question is simply what was the historical minhag (in the era before modern
hechsherim)?  Did Ashkenazim eat minority-ingredient kitniyos mixtures that
were purposely made before Pesach, or did they not?  Does anybody know?

(As an aside, this is a case where a "Rupture and Reconstruction"
textualism can lead to kula, rather than to chumra.  Based on mimesis,
nobody I knew growing up ate taaroves kitniyos, so that's the end of the
story.  But due to the lack of a textual source explicitly stating that the
minhag included a prohibition on taaroves, I am questioning whether or not
that really was the minhag before the "rupture.")

Chag kasher vesameach,
D.C.
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