Menachot 70 and 71 - The Nightmare Before Passover

0:00Hey there, and welcome back to Take One, the podcast that brings you just one Passover-ready podcast each day. And on today's pages, 70 and 71, we encounter in eerily perfect timing, the most hotly contested Passover-related issue, can we, or can we not, eat rice on Passover? Ask any rabbi, and they will tell you that there is no question, more frequently asked or for that matter, more hotly and emotionally debated than that of Kitsniyot. So before we welcome our guest today, just a bit of explaining is an order. The basic laws of Pesach are that one may not eat, nor own any chamez or eleven bread, and one must eat matza or eleven bread on the first night. But that is already kind of tricky, because both chamez and matza come from the same five

1:06basic grains, wheat, rye, oats, barley, and spelt, and that's it. Those grains become chamez when they ferment, but that's rice. That is the discussion on today's page of Talmud. In the Shulchan Aroch, perhaps the central text of Halacha or Jewish law, Rabiyosif Karo, the author specifically says that matza cannot be made of rice or other type of Kitsniyot, usually translated as legumes or sometimes beans. So if it's so clear cut, why do so many Ashkenazi Jews still do not eat Kitsniyot on Passover? Because many of the great Roshonim or early sages, we're talking 11th to 15th century here, made a few good points about Kitsniyot. First they said, if you cook barley and rice, they kind of look similar in the bowl. Second, Kitsniyot are often grown in fields that are adjacent to those in which chamez is grown. And these grains tend to mix together, even if you try really, really hard, it may still

2:08be some wheat in your Kitsniyot insert. Kitsniyot are often ground into a type of flour that can easily be confused with chamez. But because there's plenty of opportunities to mix things up and get things wrong, the rabbi suggested, and let's just go ahead and avoid Kitsniyot and pesakh all together. Which means that very often when some poor Ashkenazi soul makes his or her way to a Sephardi sater for the very first time, they discover a whole new world of Passover treats. That is precisely what happened to our guest today. Welcome back to the show, producer, Josh Passover ready cross. How's it going, Leo? Baruch Hashem, I want you to set the scene. First of all, before we even get to that magical life changing night, how was that night different? We'll soon figure out. But what were satyrs in the cross in the Ashkenazi cross family growing up? Look, my grandfather ran an amazing sater and we did your typical Maxwell house sater

3:10and it took forever and we need eventually and it looked like every stereotypical thing you would have seen in a meal Simon play. You know, it was a sater. That's what it was. You're basically served, you know, Lego pieces and some, you know, Scotch bright brown stuff. Right. And then you meet a lovely woman of a French Moroccan descent. And she says, Hey, why don't you come to my house for pesakh? How was that night different, Manishtana? You know, it was like entering an entire other world. You know, the first time you set down, well, you don't know this, but for anybody who's not from Israel, the first time you get out of a vehicle and walk around Tel Aviv and you look around and go, look at all these people, look at all this stuff, it's, it's wholly different and kind of a lot freaking better. Um, it was one of those.

4:11I'm not sure I've ever had a moment in my Jewish life where I went, damn, we were doing it wrong. I mean, until I sat down at a satir table controlled by my mother-in-law, man, I have never eaten so much fruit and tasty things and frankly, a ton of freaking hypno. Rice and beans every I had never had rice or beans and I was like, oh my God, who cares about bread? I could give you a whole lot more detail, but really what I'd like to do is sing you a song. Josh Cross, take it away. What's this? What's this? There's color everywhere. What's this? There's fragrance in the air. What's this? I can't believe my eyes. Be dreaming. Wake up, moist. This isn't fair. What's this? What's this? What's this? There's something very strange. What's this? The menus had a change. What's this?

5:12The tables filled with yellow, green and red instead of taters and some spread and no one sleeping over bread. What's this? There's children throwing leeks now, two mimics sliver whips. They're laughing and they're singing with a smile upon their lips. There's no dried out Google. No bots are bright tonight. And in my bones I feel the warmth from all the yummy spice. Oh look, what's this? They passed me beans with herbs. What's this? They said relax, you heard? Inspired? No label checking stress? No does it? Have a lecture. Yes, they we can say it's fine with this. What's this? What's this? Horosus? Pretty mean. What's this? Ten salads never seen. What's this? And if my booby saw these treats, he'd say this is and what we eat, what's this?

6:21This has been Take One. If you enjoy the show and I hope that you do, you are really going to love the new-ish book by me called How the Tom it Can Change Your Life, surprisingly modern advice from a very old book. You can order it now at your local bookstore or directly from the publisher just by clicking the link in this here podcast description or through that big online store whose logo is a smile. Please go and rate and review Take One on Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to our weekly newsletter at tabletm.ag slash Take One newsletter. Take One is a tablet studio's production. The show is hosted by me, Leah Liebowitz, our executive producers, Josh Cross, and the show is produced and edited by Josh as well as by Quinn Wall. For more information, go to tabletmag.com slash take one or email us at podcasts at tabletmag.com. I hope we have made your day a little bit more Talmudic.