frumnotyeshivish:
Gebrokst is really a silly chumra/minhag. Hataras nedarim should solve the problem.
I join DY in thinking that it is offensive, presumptuous, and frankly just ridiculous for anyone in today’s generation to disparage a minhag that vast portions of Klal Yisroel have been adhering to for over a thousand years. Who do you think you are?
Tell me, do you think hataras nedarim should also solve the “problem” of second day yomtov?
charliehall:
Wheat, barley, and oats are three of the Five Grains. They have nothing to do with kitniyot.
You are missing the forest for the trees. The point here is that cross-contamination of different grains is still very much an issue in today’s day and age. That all of the grains mentioned in the Cheerios story happen to have the same Halachic status is irrelevant.
The reason we Ashkenazim don’t eat kitniyot is because it is one of our longstanding minhagim, not because there is any issue of contamination of rice or beans with one of the Five Grains.
That’s what you say. The Mishnah Berurua, however, says something else:
“So how and why did the custom emerge to forbid Kitniyos? The reason why kitniyos were forbidden, was on account of a protective measure. The Mishnah Berurah (O.C. 453:6, 464:5) provides a few explanations:
(1) Kitniyos are harvested and processed in the same way that chametz is. The masses would confuse the two and come to permit grains for themselves.
(2) Kitniyos can also be ground and baked, just like chametz, and people might come to permit chametz grains.
(3) The Kitniyos themselves may have actual chametz mixed in. All three reasons are therefore protective in nature. The prohibition was strictly limited to consumption; one may own and derive benefit from kitniyos on Pesach.”
(Quoted from R’ Yair Hoffman’s article last year on this subject.)
Now lets move on to real issues in our community.
Some of us think Halacha shailos *are* real issues.