Is it proper to eat kosher l’Pesach
rolls, pasta, cakes, pizza and “bread” on Pesach?
This is such a rising industry that I mention it in my new book Road to Redemption, which is occasionally leavened with humor. Nonetheless, I have never understood the intense craving that people have for faux-chametz products. I expect to see an advertisement soon for a product that is “so good it tastes like chametz!” But is that what we want?
Technically, these products are kosher because they use substitutes for the forbidden grains. In that sense, it is somewhat analogous to the cases mentioned in the Gemara (Chulin 109b) in which we are taught that there is nothing forbidden to us that is not permitted in a related form. But those mostly involve permanent prohibitions, not abstentions that last a week.
The purpose of Pesach is not to replace chametz pizza with pizza that is kosher for Pesach. We have to move past the symbols and better understand the substance. We have to change our eating habits on Pesach so as to think a little more deeply about the foods we are and are not eating. We fulfill a mitzvah not just by eschewing chametz but by considering the nature of chametz as it relates to our national lives, our midot, and our relationship to Hashem. If the foods we eat on Pesach are not markedly different from the foods we eat the rest of the year then we have failed to answer the most basic question of Mah Nishtanah.
The mitzvah of ridding ourselves of chametz is called tashbitu, which is similar to Shabbat. There is a weekly Shabbat in which we create a different environment for ourselves, free of constructive labor and worldly distractions. There is an annual mitzvah of tashbitu in which we destroy all the chametz in our possession for the great variety of moral and national lessons it imparts. We should not try to play with the laws of Shabbat to gain the results of Shabbat work without the technical violations. Similarly, we should not try to avert the laws and lessons of chametz by using these imitation products. It sends the wrong message.
– Rav Steven Pruzansky is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun of Teaneck, N.J., and author of the new “Road to Redemption,” now available at Kodeshpress.com
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It’s best to leave it up to people to decide for themselves what they do or don’t want to eat on Pesach, as long as all the ingredients are kasher for Pesach. For those who want to add stringencies to the already stringent rules of Pesach, that’s their business. But no one should stand in judgment of others who choose not to add unnecessary stringencies. We should each worry about what’s on our own plates, not on what’s on the plates of others.
Moadim leSimcha.
– Rabbi Marc D. Angel is director of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.
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The Gemara says (Chullin 109b) that everything prohibited has a counterpart that is permitted (e.g., the brain of the Shibutah fish tastes like pork), from which can be inferred that having substitutes for chametz on Pesach could be a positive thing. However, since chometz is permitted year-round one does not need substitutes on Pesach to taste what chametz tastes like. More significant is that according to some opinions the reason Ashkanazi poskim prohibited kitniyos is because those products can be made into dough and baked goods that resemble chametz and lead to mistakes and confusion. (I have heard of people buying chametz cake products on Pesach thinking they were the Pesach variety and in fact ended up eating chametz on Pesach.) Additionally, it confuses children, and to a certain degree mars the spirit of Pesach and the underlying Ma Nishtana that is so fundamental to the Pesach experience.
It also reinforces in a negative manner the ability for one to exercise his free choice in controlling one’s desire, and the need to satisfy one’s material cravings due to the lack of self-control that the prohibition of chametz reinforces in a positive manner.
If consuming these products are an enhancement of one’s simchas Yom Tov and done l’shem mitzvah, they can be sanctioned with moderation. If they are representations of not being able to curb ones appetite and exert self-control for a week, then it is a sign of yetzer hara which the prohibition of chametz seeks to minimize.
– Rabbi Zev Leff is rav of Moshav Matisyahu and a popular lecturer and educator.
