Leavening Agents: How can I determine what is, and what is not, kosher for the Passover season?
One of the major Biblical injunctions concerning Passover is to eat unleavened bread for seven days, remembering the bread of haste that the Ancient Israelites had to eat as they left Egypt (Deuteronomy 16:3). By extension, not only does the command pertain to eating unleavened bread, but it is a week-long prohibition against eating anything with leavening agents. This has been interpreted and applied in different ways, with some divergent halachah, in the Jewish community over the centuries. The Talmud, for example, specifically rules that there are five types of grain that can be used for the production of matzah or unleavened bread: wheat, barley, oats, rye, and spelt (b.Pesachim 35a), and notably the list does not include rice and millet. Ashkenazic authorities would later extend the list of forbidden grains to include legumes such as beans, peas, corn, lentils, buckwheat, and sometimes peanuts. The prohibition exists because of the belief that flour made from these substances coul
