Kitniyot
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Kitniyot, qit'niyyoth (Hebrew: קִטְנִיּוֹת ,קטניות , קיטניות) (literally little things) are a category of foods defined by Jewish law and tradition which Ashkenazi Jews (Jews from Eastern Europe, Germany, etc.) refrain from eating during the Biblical festival of Passover.
The Torah (Exodus 13:3), prohibits Jews from eating leaven (chametz) during Passover. Technically chametz is only leaven made from the "five grains": wheat, spelt, barley, shibbolet shu'al (two-rowed barley according to Maimonides; oats according to Rashi) or rye, although there are additional rabbinic prohibitions against eating these grains in any form other than matzo.
Among Ashkenazi Jews, the custom during Passover is to refrain from not only products of the five grains but also kitniyot. Literally "small things," such as other grains and legumes. Traditions of what is considered kitniyot vary from community to community but generally include maize (North American corn), as well as rice, peas, lentils and beans. Many also include peanuts in this prohibition, and one source, the Chayei Adam also tries to include potatoes, though his opinion is not followed. Sephardi Jews do not generally observe this prohibition, albeit some groups do abstain from the use of dried pulses during Passover.
The origins of this practice are not clear, though two common theories are that these items are often made into products resembling chometz (e.g. cornbread), or that these items were normally stored in the same sacks as the five grains and people worried that they might become contaminated with chametz. It was also possible that crop rotations would result in the forbidden chametz grains growing in the same fields, and being mixed in with the kitniyot. Jewish law is extraordinarily stringent about the prohibition against even the slightest amount of chametz in the house during Passover, much more so than the regular laws of kosher. Thus a tradition developed to avoid these products altogether, and this eventually developed into what most of the European Jewish community accepted upon themselves as a minhag, a legally binding custom.
Sephardic and Yemenite Jews generally do not accept the necessity of this minhag, and thus eat kitniyot on Passover. Some Ashkenazi Jews in Israel who have married Sephardic Jews adopt the Sephardic custom; this often occurs with Orthodox rabbinic approval - a noted leniency, since Orthodox rabbis usually hold that one may not reject the minhagim (customs) of one's parents. In light of the gathering of Jews of all ethnic groups back in the land of Israel, Masorti Jews, the Conservative movement in Israel, hold that all Jews living in Israel may safely abandon the minhag of refraining from kitniyot.
While this practice is considered binding for Ashkenazim in Orthodox Judaism, these items are not chometz and therefore are not subject to the same prohibitions and stringencies as chometz. For example while there is a prohibition against owning chametz on Passover, no such prohibition applies to kitniyot. Similarly, while someone would not be permitted to eat chametz on Passover unless his life were in danger, the prohibition of kitniyot is not so strict. People who might be permitted to eat kitniyot include infirm people and pregnant vegetarians. Such dispensations are far more common in Israel where there is a large Sephardi population.
