Kitniyot, qit'niyyoth (Hebrew: קִטְנִיּוֹת ,קטניות , קיטניות) (literally legumes) are a category of foods which are defined by Jewish law and tradition that Ashkenazi Jews (Jews from Eastern Europe, Germany, etc.) avoid eating during the Biblical festival of Passover.
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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 traditional Ashkenazi Jews, the custom during Passover is to refrain from not only products of the five grains but also 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 includes potatoes in his list, although his opinion is not followed by any large or major groups. Sephardi Jews typically do not observe the ban on kitniyot, albeit some groups do abstain from the use of dried pulses during Passover.
The origins of this practice is not clear, though two common theories are that these items are often made into products resembling chametz (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 is also possible that crop rotation would result in the forbidden chametz grains growing in the same fields, and being mixed in with the kitniyot. Those authorities concerned with these three issues suggested that by avoiding eating kitniyot, people would be better able to avoid chametz. The Vilna Gaon (Hagaos HaGra, ibid.) cites a novel source for this custom. The Gemorrah in Pesachim (40b) notes that Rava objected to the workers of the Raish Gelusa (the Exilarch) cooking a food called chasisi on Pesach, since it was wont to be confused with chametz. The Tosefos explain that, according to the Aruch, chasisi are lentils, and thus, argues the Gra, establishes the basis for the concern of kitniyot. Rabbi David Golinkin in the Responsa of the Masorati (Conservative) Movement cites Rabbenu Manoah (Provence, ca. 1265) who wrote an opinion in his commentary on Maimonides (Laws of Festivals and Holidays 5:1) that "It is not proper to eat qitniyot on holidays because it is written (in Deut. 16:14) that ‘you shall rejoice in your festivals’ and there is no joy in eating dishes made from kitniyot".
Jewish law is customarily quite stringent about the prohibition against even tiny amounts of chametz in the house during Passover, much more so than the regular laws of kashrut. 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.
Even where the prohibition of kitniyot was practiced, it was not without opposition. Some poskim went as far as to call it a "stupid practice" without basis. Others, including Rav Moshe Feinstein did not advocate abandoning the custom, but he certainly opposed the tendency to expand the list of forbidden kitniyot (see Igrot Moshe, Orah Hayyim 3. 63).
Sephardic and Yemenite Jews generally do not accept the need for 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 chametz and therefore are not subject to the same prohibitions and stringencies as chametz. 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.
The practice of not eating chametz has evolved to the point of not eating even derivatives of kitniyot, such as corn syrup.
Rabbi David Bar-Hayim of Machon Shilo offers a unique Orthodox approach: he has published a responsum outlining his opinion that there is no binding custom on Ashkenazim in the Land of Israel as historically this was not the local practice (which, he explains, is the essence of custom); in March 2007 he released a ruling that all Jews in the Land of Israel are permitted to eat kitniyot (see English Article and Hebrew Legal Ruling). Nevertheless, aside from a small group of his followers, the vast majority of religiously observant Ashkenazim in Israel disagree with this ruling and still refrain from eating kitniyot on Passover.
Outside Israel, however, at least until 2011, the distinction between Kitniyot and non Kitniyot or Chametz can be almost academic. Instead of relying on reading ingredients on labels, Orthodox Jews require their manufactured and processed food to be certified or checked (year round) to see that it qualifies with Halacha in both the ingredients and tools used to process and manufacture the food. For Passover, Jews require certification of this in addition to certification that foods neither contain chametz nor were prepared with utensils that contain chametz. In most countries outside Israel (including the US) the major agencies which certify food as kosher, or kosher for Passover, do not have a special category for food which is "only kitniyot" and not chametz. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for the typical consumer to tell conclusively if an item is kitniyot or would be considered chametz because of some hidden ingredients or manufacturing process. Thus, those who would eat kitniyot—people who are sick, sephardim, or others who could take advantage of the special category known as kitniyot—are largely out of luck and must treat any processed items without full certification as possibly full fledged chametz. In 2011 the OU, a major certification agency, began issuing a kitniyot-only hecksher.[1]
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