WHAT’S KOSHER FOR PASSOVER ANYWAY?
Paul Samberg, KU Hillel intern, hopped on a Zoom chat with KU Hillel’s Rabbi Neal Schuster to talk about some of the quirks of Passover. Check out an edited version of their transcript below:
“For Passover, things need to be made intentionally unleavened, as opposed to just unintentionally leavened.”
Samberg: I was watching your video about Kosher-for-Passover alcohol, and it was really funny to me because, when you shifted from the beer and the vodka to the Kosher-for-Passover alcohol, it looked identical to the liquor cabinet that I helped my grandparents move out of their house when they left Long Island this summer.
Schuster: That's awesome.
Samberg: Why is it that the Rabbis decided you can use five types of grains to make matzah and nothing else?
Schuster: In the ancient world and in the period of antiquity, those were the basic grains that they used. Those are the grains that are talked about in biblical text. Those are the grains that one would use to make bread, basically.
The idea of matzah versus chametz is you're using the same thing but creating a different product. The idea is that anything other than matzah from those grains is necessarily going to be chametz, because anything else you're doing with it, it's rising in some way. There's intentional rising that comes from adding yeast to it, which is specifically prohibited in the Torah. (The Torah says you can't have it in your house or in your dwelling.) When the Torah says you can’t have it, it’s talking about the yeast — the rising agent. The same goes for those who make sourdough bread with a sourdough starter, you would get rid of that every year and start over.
There’s also rising where you take flour, and you add yeast to it, and then you have rising that occurs naturally. If you take a bunch of oats and just mix it in water and leave it there, the product will be fluffier. Part of that is it just gets puffed up with water, but there is also naturally occurring yeast all over the place.
When you smash grapes to get the juice and everything, it ferments. You know when people make wine they add a yeast to it, but there's naturally occurring yeast on the skin of the grapes that interacts with it and leads to that natural fermentation.
For Passover, things need to be made intentionally unleavened, as opposed to just unintentionally leavened.
Samberg: Why do some families and some people clean out their fridges and stuff—why don't you just leave it in there and avoid all the chametz?
Schuster: I mentioned the idea that you have to get rid of the yeast in your house. In rabbinic terms, that became not just getting rid of your yeast starter, but you can’t have any chametz in your house.
“A zeal for cleanliness is one of our ritual features.”
Because chametz would drop during the year, you have to clean everything out. Whether this is the full origin of spring cleaning, who knows, but it certainly is the origin of spring cleaning among Jews. It also explains why, some of that time, disease was less prevalent or didn't spread as badly among Jewish communities because a zeal for cleanliness is one of our ritual features.
A lot of people will get rid of all their chametz, but some people will do a kind of symbolic selling of their comments to a non-Jewish person, and then buy it back for $1, and others will basically box up all the chametz. In my home, anything that’s been open, we throw out, but we’ll put anything unopened in a Tupperware bin and seal it and put it in the garage. It’s declared hefger — ownerless like the dust of the earth.
Samberg: Why is there non-Kosher-for-Passover matzah?
Schuster: “Kosher for Passover” means it has been supervised and prepared in a certain way to make sure it doesn’t become chametz. A lot of products may be made in a way that is essentially Kosher for Passover but careful attention wasn't paid to make sure that nothing got into it. On a kind of metaphysical cosmic level, it may be perfectly fine, but we don't know because no one was really inspecting it.
The other is that some matzah products are made with additives besides flour and water, like egg or onion or something like that, and that’s called Matzah Ashira.
Samberg: Do you know anyone that actually enjoys eating matzah 365 days a year?Schuster: I’m sure there are people out there.
Samberg: Let’s rapid-fire name different things and have you say if they’re Kosher for Passover or not.
Schuster: Ok.
Samberg: Bread?
Schuster: No.
Samberg: Bialys?
Schuster: No.
Samberg: Eggs?
Schuster: Yeah.
Samberg: Hard boiled eggs, too?
Schuster: Yeah.
Samberg: Chocolate?
Schuster: Yeah. It depends on whether or not it has any non-Kosher additives like corn syrup.
Samberg: Boxed wine?
Schuster: There’s nothing wrong with it other than the quality.
Samberg: Corn?
Schuster: I do not eat corn.
Samberg: Potatoes?
Schuster: Absolutely.
Samberg: Matzah?
Schuster: It is Kosher for Passover.
