Thursday, March 12, 2009
Quinoa 2009
Once again, it's time for the annual check on the status of quinoa for Passover. This year, instead of Aish Hatorah, the source of bafflement is the OU.
Their Passover Guide is out and online. The full PDF quotes the now common and relatively safe "ask your Rabbi" (yes, Rabbi is capitalized) position. One article attempts to define "kitnios" (or is it "kitniyot?") logically by reference to the Mishnah Brura, thus stating that quinoa "logically" should be kitniyot, despite all the exceptions that lead to the conclusion that kitniyot defies logic.* (Another baffling statement in the article is that if kitniyot are prepared on Pesach for a permissible reason, "they should be prepared in special non-Pesach and non-chametz utensils, which should not be washed with the Pesach dishes" -- anyone know where that comes from?) The other quinoa-related news on the OU website is the short kitniyot list, which, despite the official "ask your Rabbi" position, says (drumroll please):
Huh?
* The article was prepared in a word processor with autocorrect turned on. Anyone want to guess how I knew that? :-)
Their Passover Guide is out and online. The full PDF quotes the now common and relatively safe "ask your Rabbi" (yes, Rabbi is capitalized) position. One article attempts to define "kitnios" (or is it "kitniyot?") logically by reference to the Mishnah Brura, thus stating that quinoa "logically" should be kitniyot, despite all the exceptions that lead to the conclusion that kitniyot defies logic.* (Another baffling statement in the article is that if kitniyot are prepared on Pesach for a permissible reason, "they should be prepared in special non-Pesach and non-chametz utensils, which should not be washed with the Pesach dishes" -- anyone know where that comes from?) The other quinoa-related news on the OU website is the short kitniyot list, which, despite the official "ask your Rabbi" position, says (drumroll please):
The following may be Kitniyot and are therefore not used:
Quinoa
Amaranth
Huh?
* The article was prepared in a word processor with autocorrect turned on. Anyone want to guess how I knew that? :-)
Labels: judaism, kitniyot, passover, quinoa
Friday, April 04, 2008
Quinoa: the slow drift toward kitniyotization continues
Every year since 2005, I've been tracking the status of quinoa for Passover. I've been using the instructions on the Aish HaTorah website as a guide to when it would be considered kitniyot, on the theory that where that Chareidi kiruv organization goes, soon gets dragged down the Modern Orthodox world, then, whatever they said becomes "universal observant practice." This year, ADDeRabbi beat me to an update, adding in:
Once again, I checked the trusty Aish "all about kitniyot" page. This year, it says:
Compare that to the text I recorded in 2006. Notice a pattern? Does it conform to the process I described there?
I’ve been informed that the Gedolim in Eretz Yisrael consider quinoa to be kitniyot. No surprise there.
Once again, I checked the trusty Aish "all about kitniyot" page. This year, it says:
There is one product called "quinoa" (pronounced "kin-O-ah," or keen-WA) that is the subject of much discussion. Although quinoa resembles a grain, it is technically in the "goose foot" family, which includes sugar beets and beet root. As such, some rabbis (for example, Rabbi Heinemann of Star-K) permit its use even for Ashkenazim on Passover, while other rabbis do not.
Compare that to the text I recorded in 2006. Notice a pattern? Does it conform to the process I described there?
Labels: halacha, judaism, kitniyot, passover, quinoa
Monday, March 26, 2007
No news is good news
It's the week before Passover, making it time for the annual update on quinoa. And, so far, I haven't heard of any more bans. And, the pro-quinoa articles are all still on their originating websites; some include their original "check with your rabbi" disclaimers. Overall, this year, quinoa looks like it's safe from further kitniyotization.
Labels: halacha, judaism, kashrut, kitniyot, kosher, passover, yay
