SPICES AND PASSOVER

QUESTION:

A lady preparing a cookbook of Passover foods was told that garlic is prohibited on Passover. Is this prohibition a firm one or may she include, as she wishes to, garlic in some of the Passover recipes? (Asked by Rabbi Kenneth Segel.)

ANSWER:

I KNOW of no specific prohibition of garlic on Passover although there are some general prohibitions under which some might want to include the prohibition of garlic. The Mishnah (Pesachim 2:8) says that one shall not put flour into horseradish or mustard, because these strong condiments will leaven the flour that is put into it. So if it is done the mixture must be eaten at once before it leavens. The Shulchan Aruch, Orah Hayyim 464, says that if mustard and other spices are wet, i.e., mixed with water, it will leaven flour which is put into it; therefore such a mixture must be eaten at once before it has time to leaven. To which Isserles adds that it has become our custom to eat no mustard at all on Passover, just as it is our custom not to eat peas and beans on Passover.

The objection to peas and beans on Passover is mentioned in Orah Hayyim 453. Caro says they are actually not prohibited, but Isserles says it is our Ashkenazic custom to prohibit them. The Tur gives a reason for this Ashkenazic custom, namely, that the flour made from peas, etc., can be confused with flour made from wheat, which must be guarded against leavening.

So the state of the law seems to be that one must be careful with mustard and other spices, to eat the mixture of them with flour at once, before it leavens. Whereas the Ashkenazic custom is to make sure and not eat mustard at all on Passover. You will notice that Isserles does not speak of prohibiting other spices, but some people may well have included other spices in the prohibition and considered garlic as one of the other spices.

As a matter of fact, this is exactly what has occurred. Many people did get the notion that among the spices which were forbidden for the reasons mentioned above, garlic must be included. So there is a well-established custom among people not to eat garlic on Passover. However, the scholars deprecate this popular prohibition. Joseph Teomim, whose P’ri Megadim is the most voluminous commentary (on commentaries of) the Shulchan Aruch, says in the subdivision “Eshel Avraham,” Orah Hayyim 464, that he does not know any basis for this objection to eating garlic on Passover, but he advises not to tell the ignorant that it is permitted. This caution is according to a well-known principle in the law, not to get the uneducated into the habit of non-observance. If they consider something prohibited, it is not wise to tell them it is permitted (even though it actually is permitted). However, Joseph Teomim adds that educated people may, if they wish, eat the garlic in private. So, too, Abraham Danzig, the famous codifier, says in his Chaye Adam, 127:7 (at the end) that there is no reason for this prohibition and it should be permitted outright. A full discussion of this whole matter is found in Gedalye Felder’s Yesode Jeshurun, Vol. 4, p. 212.

So you may tell the lady who inquired that there is, indeed, a folk notion that garlic should not be eaten on Passover, but that the great authorities say that there is no ground for such a prohibition. Tell her to include the garlic in her Passover recipes. If some ignorant people complain, she can brush them aside with the statement that the P’ri Megadim and the Chaye Adam are on her side.