[Avodah] kitniyot

[Zev Sero]

On 27/5/20 12:21 am, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
> In Israel, where IIUC the majority of consumers eat kitniyot on Pesach, 
> why would the manufacturers be considered to be mvatlim issur 
> l’chatchila in terms of non-kitniyot eaters buying a product containing 
> trace kitniyot?

Who says they are?  It seems clear to me that so long as these products 
are *labelled* as having been produced exclusively for ochlei kitniyot, 
and the machshirim so advise the manufacturers and the public, the 
mixture that occurs is not with the intent of being mevatel an issur, 
and therefore an Ashkenazi who happens upon one of these products may 
indeed eat it.

The dilemma is that if this is announced and part of the manufacturer's 
plans, then they are mixing it with the intent that the Ashkenazim 
should eat it, and thus according to the Rashba, whom all the major 
machshirim follow lechumra, giving a hechsher on it would constitute 
bitul issur lechatchila.

The fact that the Sefardim are a majority would seem to indicate 
otherwise, as we see in the case of Shabbos that when a nochri does a 
melacha that is "ner le'echad ner leme'ah" we follow the majority of the 
people he did it for, and if 51% of them are nochrim the Jews may 
benefit; however in the case of hechsherim consider the *normal* case 
that machshirim deal with every day, where the vast majority of a 
product's intended consumers are nochrim, and yet they follow the 
Rashba's opinion and do not allow the manufacturer to deliberately add a 
small amount of issur to the product.

Nevertheless, it also seems to me that just as on Shabbos, if the nochri 
himself uses the light, then even if he is the only nochri present all 
the Jews may use it because we assume that his primary intent was for 
himself, so also if an Ashkenazi is invited to a Sefardi home, where the 
cook's primary intent is for his own family and only secondarily for the 
guests, then he may eat everything except actual kitniyot be'ein.  So he 
may eat the meat and vegetables that were cooked with the chickpeas and 
just leave the whole chickpeas behind.


-- 
Zev Sero            Wishing everyone a *healthy* and happy summer
zev at sero.name       Seek Jerusalem's peace; may all who love you prosper