Back to Question of the Week Back to Archives Q: I'm thinking ahead to Pesach and I have a dilemma. I need to know what is permissible or advised for people to eat during Pesach who are lactose intolerant and want to avoid meat, i.e. have a vegetarian diet. It is my understanding that soy beans and therefore soya milk etc. is not kosher for Pesach. I have another question related to this which is - what about people on a gluten free diet? They cannot have wheat and many other grains and during the year eat potatoes and rice bread kind of things. The rice won't do for Pesach or will it? This diet is for serious health reasons so the option of eating matzah made of wheat just for the week isn't viable. -Confused Already, and it's still Adar!
		A: Dear Confused: Ah yes, it's merely a month away from Pesach, that annual season of collective anxiety about the permitted and forbidden, the edible and the shunned. [Wasn't that a movie starring Clint Eastwood or something?] In fact, the Shulchan Aruch begins its discussion of Passover observances by stating that one "begins to ask about the laws of Passover thirty days beforehand." So it's appropriate to start the post-Purim season with a little review of terms which will figure prominently in our Passover deliberations. What the Torah tells us to refrain from eating on Pesach is chametz , or leavened grain products. (Exodus 12:13; 13:3) The post-Biblical rabbis come along and tell us that chametz is something that happens when one of the five kinds of grain mentioned in the Bible comes into contact with water for a while (18 minutes, to be exact.) Those five kinds of grain are: wheat, barley, spelt, rye,and oats. Chametz, in the rabbinic conception of things, becomes during Pesach something like nuclear waste: you shouldn't eat it, you shouldn't have even a speck in your house, you shouldn't even own it or keep it anywhere else. That's why many people clean their houses before the holiday; they want to get rid of any chametz that might be lurking under a sofa or in the corner. Along with the Biblical prohibition on chametz, rabbis in medieval Europe also took it upon themselves not to eat other kinds of seeds and beans and legumes that might have been ground up with the prohibited grains, or which looked like the prohibited grains, or which might be mistaken for them. These other foods, like rice, beans, lentils, and so on, are called kitniyot. The important thing to remember is that kitniyot are not chametz, even if it is the custom of your family or community not to eat them during Pesach. Therefore, in the case of someone who needs other kinds of protein that week, I would say to go ahead and eat rice and beans and peanuts; the other members of the family may or may not join that person in chowin' down on a big matzah tostada with refried beans, but they could all use the same dishes and other utensils. Now, the case of someone who can't eat gluten is different, in that they should go ahead and eat kitniyot all week, just like they might during the year, but they can't eat matzah either. The same section of the Torah which told us to not eat chametz during Pesach also told us to eat matzah, at least on the first night of the holiday. (12:18) This is why most, if not all, Haggadot (book for the seder night) have a special blessing before eating matzah at the seder. So it seems like someone who is allergic to gluten would miss out on the mitzvah of eating matzah on the first night, but after that would merely refrain from eating chametz as normal- in fact, that person probably never eats chametz, so Pesach isn't such a big adjustment! Maybe they could have some extra marror (the bitter herb) and make up for it that way? (I'm half-serious with that suggestion; since matzah is called the "bread of affliction," maybe eating more bitter herb would be a way to have the emotional experience of recalling the bitterness of the oppression in slavery.) Happy clicking! NJL

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