[Avodah] kitnoyot

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Wed, Apr 05, 2017 at 06:51:14AM -0400, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: It seems to me that people are getting confused between kitniyos and
: gebroks.

I think the conversation works better as is.

Gebrochts is a minhag to avoid the possible manufacture of real chameitz
from any flour that happened to stay dry when the matzah was made.

Qitniyos is a minhag or multiple minhagim to avoid things that either:

1- are stored in the same silos as with chameitz, in which case it's much
like gebrochts in function. Or

2- are used in a manner similar to chameitz, and people might eat chameitz
thinking it's pea porridge or mustard seed or whatnot.

And these could indeed be divergant minhagim, where different explanations
became primary drivers in different areas, leading to difference in how
practice evolved.

But explanation #2 does open the door for the original question.

Pretzels made from oatmeal make it possible for someone to accidentally
eat real chameitz pretzels.

And if your ancestral version of qitniyos includes growing it to include
new items that make the same mistake possible, eg corn, then why not all
these gebrochts or potato / potato starch products -- not because they're
gebrochts (if they are), but because reason #2 applies.

: So what new problem has arisen with "farfel, bread sticks etc"? Whatever
: arguments you have against them today existed 200 years ago also, and they
: were rejected by communities that ate gebroks.

No, we didn't have factory kitchens making gebrochts bread sticks that
seem exactly like real ones. (If not of your favorite brand.) This really
is a recent development.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             You are not a human being in search
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