Comments on: Kitniyot Defense League?

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:11:34 +0000

To Joe:

The minhag has absolutely no basis to it at all. You should do your research before throwing fancy psaks at us. We should never forget
that a minhag is there to protect a valid cause, however, these days there is no reason behind kitniyot. Not only that but the Neturei Kitniyos people remind of a funny story I read here
dovbear.blogsp...

By: Yonathan

Yonathan — Tue, 22 May 2007 09:06:41 +0000

It is unfortunate that for these “Neturei Kitniyos” (no definite relation to Neturei Karta, but you never know), minhag or even chumrah is more important than halacha. They will spare no effort to perpetuate galut, whether physical or spiritual. They’re simply missing the boat.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 23:16:36 +0000

DK, you’ve got a point.
Frankly speaking if we were all truly traditionalists ie. back to the Tanach, we’d become Karaites. However, they’ve developed their own humrot, and their own (abbreviated) oral law. The Karaites don’t believe that chicken is fleishik. But with them its’ no chulent/ tbeet/ dfina on shabbat (since they believe in no fire on shabbat, even if it started before), and no sex on shabbat. Same thing goes for the Samaritans. So you win some and you lose some, ha ha !
I sincerely believe that in ideal world we should aim (through promotion) at 20 million traditional (not necessarily Orthodox) rabbinic Jews, 20 million Karaite Jews, and 20 million Samaritans. These are all Torah-based faiths.
We would learn a lot from each other, and for all the various traditional streams out there, it would get non- affiliated people more excited/ curious about traditional Judaism, and become less keen on Reform and Conservative.
If nothing else, it sure would confuse the heck out of the anti-Semites, ha ha !

By: DK

DK — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:02:09 +0000

“an acknowledgment that tradition and halachah can evolve to take into account modern developments”

No — not at all. This is a return to ancient law, not modern edvelopments. What it represents is proof that even in the Orthodox world, there are some who recognize that not every last piece of luggage can be shlepped from Poland. We are on a short ride, here, and most of us only have room for one bag in the overhead compartment.

Now about the whole chicken as fleishik thing…

By: yoseph crack

yoseph crack — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 18:06:00 +0000

“Since Pesach is so much about tradition I don’t know if I really want to break the Kitniot ban. It would not be the same.”

Is that really all it’s about? I thought it had something to do with liberation from slavery or something.

how far back does our use of coconut macaroons and potato starch go? not very. Pesach has always been about culinary innovation as much as old tradition, that’s why it’s a combination of the official questions kids are made to ask, and all the new ones they are bringing back with them.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 16:50:04 +0000

“Those who question this practice and are lenient concerning it are demonstrating that they have neither fear of God nor fear of sin. They also display a flawed comprehension of the proper ways of Torah observance. Although there are some countries which have not followed this stringency, all of Germany, France, Russia, and Poland have accepted upon themselves and their descendants this wonderful stringency, which has a good reason, and one who deviates from it should be bitten by a snake.” (Aruch Hashulchan 453:4-5 on Kitniyot)

By: ck

ck — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 14:27:06 +0000

Oh yikes. I kinda messed that one up. I guess for the opposite view, please see kitniyot.blogs...

Yikes.

By: Eliyahu

Eliyahu — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 14:21:25 +0000

Just to clearify, the Kitniyos Defense League is AGAINST eating kitniyos on pesach and does not believe that embracing our minhagim hinders Jewish Unity. This site is a response to the Kitniyot Liberation Front.

By: Mia*

Mia* — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 13:14:06 +0000

I think it would be very strange to have matza with hummus, although I hear it’s a real treat.
Since Pesach is so much about tradition I don’t know if I really want to break the Kitniot ban. It would not be the same.