JewsByChoice.Org

Hi all. I was perusing the Jerusalem Post tonight when I read one of my favorite regular columns, The Sephardi Perspective, which on a regular basis examines the Sephardi view on various aspects of Jewish practice; in the U.S. we often forget there are other experiences and approaches than what the majority Ashkenazi Jewish culture reflects. Anyway, this week the discussion turned to the issue of kitniyot, which are literally “legumes.” During Pesach, Ashkenazi minhag is to avoid kitniyot, lest flour made from things like rice, corn, or beans cause confusion with flour from the prohibited species of wheat, spelt, oats, barley, and rye. Sephardi and Mizrachi communities do not observe this prohibition, which is shocking to some Ashkenazim when they discover this. I was shocked to hear that many Ashkenazim in Israel won’t eat in the homes of Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews during Pesach, for fear that their failure to observe the prohibition of kitniyot renders their homes unfit to eat in.

The JPost article on this issue is fascinating. It talked about how in a community called Machon Shilo, rabbanim have issued a ruling that Ashkenazim living in Israel may feel free to disregard the prohibition of kitniyot for the sake of Jewish unity. I followed a link to a site connected to the rabbanim who made this ruling, and what I found was really worth a look. The website has this to say in the “About Us” section:

The central idea behind Machon Shilo is that while the Jewish People have physically returned to Erets Yisrael, they have not yet returned to the Torah of Erets Yisrael, only to the learning of Torah in Erets Yisrael.

Today, many–if not most–practices are not precisely performed as described in the Torah or Mishna, and certainly not as they were performed by our forefathers in Erets Yisrael. The lulav is not taken by most Jews in Erets Yisrael when the first day of Sukkoth is on the Shabbath, the style of praying is based on the customs of Bavel (Babylon), the Talmudh Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) is the major tool of Jewish learning, etc. And the list goes on.

But for generations, this was not the case. There was a unique Torah of Erets Yisrael whose scholarship surpassed that of Bavel –even after the Second Temple was destroyed. This living Torah, the product of the Torah scholars of the Mishna and Talmudh Yerushalmi, was all but stamped out by the Romans, Byzantines and Arabs. And when the community in Erets Yisrael was at its weakest, leadership of worldwide Jewry passed to the scholars of Babylon; their outlook and practices became authoritative for worldwide Jewry.

Changes were made that reflected new surroundings, different circumstances and even different Halachic interpretations.

Circumstances have changed again. We’re not in Babylon anymore. After 2000 years, Am Yisrael, the Jewish People, have returned home and the time has come to revivify Jewish practice–as it was practiced in Erets Yisrael. Simply put we need to “renew our days as the days of old” (hadeish yameinu kekedem).

There are lots of worthwhile things to read on the site, such as this one by Rav Bar-Hayim that deals with the failure of the majority of world Jewry to take up the mitzvah of techelet on the tzitzit. I highly recommend that any student of Jewish history, law, or Israeli culture take a spin through the site. I will give the caveat here that I do not agree with everything that is suggested on the site, but I do believe that a lot of the content reflects creative and interesting thinking.

One of the points the Rabbis on the site seem to be making is that the tendency for Judaism to calcify the status quo to the point of making minhagim in to mitzvot is divisive, and ultimately, a serious problem. They seem pretty committed to doing what they can to encourage a return to a baseline of mitzvot anchored in Torah, and a whittling away of minhagim that are used as a pretext to reinforce separations within the Jewish community around the world.

Have a look and see what you think!

Chag Sameach v’Kasher!

Yair