Cracker Jack Kitniyos Controversy

Shimon: Easy there, Boruch! Rav Huna ate cooked rice on Pesach. Clearly, we don’t follow Rebbe Yochanan ben Nuri.

Boruch: True, but maybe some Rishonim still forbid kitniyos!

Shimon: Not Rabbeinu Yerucham! He said those who avoid rice and other kitniyos on Pesach are following a minhag shtus, a foolish custom!

Boruch: Yet Rabbeinu Peretz disagrees. He admits the halacha allows kitniyos but says there’s an ancient minhag not to eat it and that we shouldn’t dismiss it lightly.

Shimon: Still, the Shulchan Aruch rules clearly that one may eat kitniyos on Pesach.

Boruch: And the Rema rules clearly that one may not. You’re an Ashkenazi, and I assume your custom is to follow the Rema.

Shimon: Well, my in-laws are Sephardim, and they eat kitniyos. I heard that Rav Yitzchok Berkowitz, shlit”a, said I can eat by them, so what’s the problem?

Boruch: Ah, I’m familiar with that psak, but it’s about utensils, not eating actual kitniyos. Here’s the exact wording of his response:

“Can an Ashkenazi eat at a Sephardi house on Pesach if the Sephardi serves no kitniyos but uses keilim/kitchen where kitniyos were cooked? What if it’s a family seder? Should one try to decline the invitation?

Rav Y. Berkowitz replied: M’ikkar hadin, it is muttar. Regarding this, we were not noheig to be mekabel the chumra of kitniyos in utensils. It’s a contemporary stringency. If you have a reason to go, you may be lenient. No need to get out of the invitation.”

Shimon: You know, I have this feeling that this conversation is supposed to connect to the daf. We’re learning Zevachim, and the Gemara (48b) says: “We never find that something secondary is more stringent than the principal.” Tell me, Boruch, do you eat matzah?

Boruch: Of course!

Shimon: But it’s chametz! It’s made from the five grains!

Boruch: Don’t be ridiculous. Once water comes into contact with flour, it can become chametz, but we ensure it doesn’t.

Shimon: What if water never touched the grain kernel?

Boruch: Then it can’t be chametz.

Shimon: Exactly. So if grain that never touched water isn’t chametz, why should air-popped popcorn be forbidden? It’s just dry kernels that were heated! You’re telling me you’re stricter about a secondary minhag like kitniyos than about real wheat grain?

Boruch: If you’re so logical, maybe you think you can make matzah from rice flour, too? Mix it with water, bake it in under eighteen minutes, would that be kosher l’Pesach?

Shimon: Who says it isn’t? The great Gaon, Rav Shlomo Kluger, says you can eat rice matzah on Pesach just not for the mitzvah!

Boruch: I’ve never seen anyone do it.

Shimon: That doesn’t mean it’s forbidden. Moreover, if there is a custom not to, it’s probably just to prevent confusion. People might mistake rice wafers for authentic matzah, which fulfills the mitzvah. People might also mistake rice flour for wheat flour.

But popcorn? No one’s confusing that with anything! It’s obviously not grain.

Boruch: I seem to recall that the Maamar Mordechai agreed with your reasoning in principle but warned that permitting some forms of kitniyos could be a slippery slope. Did any modern posek actually allow popcorn?

Shimon: Not popcorn specifically. But Rav Yehoshua Pfeffer ruled that roasted pumpkin seeds are fine as long as they weren’t cooked in water.

Boruch: That’s ridiculous. Pumpkin seeds aren’t even kitniyos!

Shimon: Well, Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, held they aren’t but Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l held that they are. Rav Pfeffer followed Rav Shlomo Zalman’s opinion yet still ruled that roasted pumpkin seeds are permitted. He said explicitly that we do not need to follow the chumra of the Maamar Mordechai. Perhaps he would permit popcorn, too.

Boruch: And the peanuts in your snack?

Shimon: Also roasted, not cooked — same as popcorn. Besides, Rav Moshe Feinstein wrote that peanuts aren’t kitniyos at all and can be eaten in places where the custom doesn’t forbid them. There’s no prevailing custom here in Cracker Jack, PA.

Boruch: Alright. Maybe you’re not a sheigetz after all.

Shimon (grinning): And by the way, the Kovetz Halachos says we stop eating chametz four seasonal hours into the day, but kitniyos can be eaten until sunset! So I wasn’t a sheigetz for that reason either! So, Boruch...would you like some Cracker Jack?

Boruch: What?! You think I’m a sheigetz?!