Leggo my Legumes
Posted at
Tim sent me a link to an article of interest to all of us who chafe against the custom of not eating kitniot on Pesach. The article does a good job of expressing the reasons why I personally think the custom is a bad idea. Namely, the prohibition is so awfully ill-defined, which not only offends my aesthetic affinity for categorical neatness, but also has caused the custom to bloat like the Blob, forbidding a series of foodstuffs that are progressively less like actual chametz, with no end in sight. The article also nicely summarizes Becca's pet peeve about the prohibition, citing how it creates an arbitrary and useless division among people. It's all the more annoying in that it often keeps people from eating at their friends' houses over the holiday.
I haven't checked out the credentials of this Machon Shilo outfit well enough to have an opinion about their qualifications for making the ruling that they do, but they've got me enthusiastically agreeing with the logic and philosophy that they express on this issue.