News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Rishon L’Tzion, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef spilled the beans on kitniyot (legumes), reaffirming the ban of Ashkenazi Jews during Passover. The Sephardic spiritual leader at his weekly Saturday night lecture stated that it’s definitely kosher for a Sephardic Jew to eat kitniyot, which includes rice and beans. However, he admonished rabbis who claim that the Ashkenazic ban is no longer applicable. “The Ashkenazim have many more stringencies than the Sephardim, and everyone has to follow whatever his community does,” Rabbi Yosef stated.

Rabbi Yosef furthermore explained that the Ashkenazic ban on eating kitniyot on Passover stems from a once prevalent custom of packing legumes in sacks that used to contain flour. Ashkenazim decided not to eat these products on Passover out of concern that some of the flour might mix with water, becoming leavened.