Your questions about Passover - answered! by Katja Vehlow https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa This page is for the IntroJudaismNJ class, and the entire United Synagogue of Hoboken community, to post questions about Passover - foods, themes, observances, etc. Click the + at the bottom of any column to add a question. Check back later, and Rabbi Scheinberg and USH rabbinic intern Katja Vehlow will respond. en-us 2021-03-17 21:19:27 UTC 2023-03-10 15:00:17 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1323214400 Can one eat matzah before Pesach ?]]> 2021-03-18 00:26:24 UTC https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1323214400 What is the reason for including legumes (kitniyot) in the prohibition? Why do Ashkenazic and Sefardic Jews have different perspectives on eating Kitniyot on Passover? robscheinberg https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1323223687 Lots to say about this.... 

  • According to Jewish law, Jews should abstain from hametz (leavened products) on Passover. According to Jewish law, the only substances that can be hametz are wheat, barley, rye, oats, and spelt.  Thus, a product that has absolutely no wheat, barley, rye, oats, or spelt content cannot be hametz.
  • Ashkenazic Jews (Jews from Eastern and Central Europe) have had the practice for several hundred years to also abstain from other foods on Passover, like corn, rice, and beans and other legumes.  (Collectively, these additional foods are called kitniyot.)  Several reasons have been suggested for this practice, including that it is possible to make flour out of these substances and that they could have been stored together with hametz or inadvertently mixed with hametz.  These foods, however, have remained in a separate category from hametz.  (Whereas hametz is actually forbidden according to Jewish law, kitniyot are merely customarily not eaten by Ashkenazic Jews.)   In general, Sefardic and Mizrahi Jews (Jews who trace their ancestry from Spain, the Mediterranean region, and the Arab world) have not abstained from eating kitniyot on Passover.
  • More than 20 years ago, Masorti (Conservative) Judaism in Israel went on record declaring that Ashkenazic Jews need not abstain from eatingkitniyot anymore, in the interests of the unity of the Jewish community, and in light of the fact that the original reasons for abstaining from eating kitniyotwere questionable.  (The author of this opinion was Rabbi David Golinkin, who visited our community a few years ago; see http://www.responsafortoday.com/engsums/3_4.htm)
  • about 5 years ago, an opinion of the Committee on Jewish Laws and Standards (2016) essentially reiterated Rabbi Golinkin's opinion:  Ashkenazic Jews who want to follow the Sefardic practice of eating kitniyot on Passover should feel free to do so.  Ashkenazic Jews who want to continue to abstain from kitniyot on Passover are welcome to do so.

]]> 2021-03-18 00:29:42 UTC https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1323223687 Is plant-based meat kosher for passover (e.g., beyond meat, impossible meat,) https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1323223993 2021-03-18 00:29:48 UTC https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1323223993 https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1323229942 I heard that due to the actual circumstances of the pandemic, some rabbis said you could seal and isolate the chametz. Is that true? ]]> 2021-03-18 00:31:53 UTC https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1323229942 What can I eat on Passover besides eggs and cheese and matzah? robscheinberg https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1323407047 some suggestions compiled by Katja.... ]]> 2021-03-18 01:35:03 UTC https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1323407047 Seder Start Time https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1329829957 Barry and I plan to host a Zoom seder on the first night of Pesach, March 27. 
Shabbat ends late (7:57 PM according to Chabad).
Can we begin the ceremony earlier than that if we plan to light the candles in the middle rather than at the end of the seder?
]]> 2021-03-19 13:56:55 UTC https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1329829957 We are having elderly, vaccinated parents come to our Seder -- two middle-aged adults, no children. Because they cannot drive after dark, and they live on Long Island, and it can take up to 2 hours to get to Nassau County from here especially on 1st Seder night, we are having a lunchtime Seder, on Shabbat, so they can feel comfortable being here, participate, and then not have anxiety when driving home in full sunlight. What things besides lighting the candles must I do after dark to fulfill the mitzvah of having a Seder -- knowing that my actual Seder, with 4 Questions etc, concluded before sunset and before Pesach actually begins and so I don't think it actually counts as a Seder. Is the commandment of honoring parents "higher than" the mitzvah of having a Seder? Thank you! https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1330388244 2021-03-19 15:58:40 UTC https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1330388244 robscheinberg https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1330671499 2021-03-19 16:59:48 UTC https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1330671499 robscheinberg https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1330672173 2021-03-19 16:59:58 UTC https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1330672173 Since we know historically few Jews lived in Egypt at the time the Exodus was to have taken place, I bee the Pesach story more as an allegory. Egypt was not a slave-based economy. There were two migrations that occurred but from Israel about the time each Temple fell. So, I think there was a conflation of stories. With this knowledge, how would you view Passover. https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1357458033 2021-03-26 14:42:17 UTC https://padlet.com/katjavehlow/q37cq5pqxvcg5goa/wish/1357458033