coffee or water for tea should be prepared in thermostatically controlled urns prior to Shabbat. The urns should be left hot (overnight) until the coffee or water is used. There should be enough capacity in the urns to meet all needs on Shabbat. However, if it is anticipated that demand will outrun supply, then additional water may be boiled before Shabbat and left standing at room temperature. The water should be added gradually, before the urns empty, so that the boiling process does not begin again. The water storage containers should be labeled to avoid error. A non-Jew may refill the urns when necessary, on the assumption that (s)he will drink a cup of tea or coffee. Where possible, automatic devices are preferable.

Any food (including water for tea or coffee) which is to be used on Shabbat in the synagogue should be cooked and/or boiled prior to Shabbat⁷. Therefore, when using either electric or gas urns, the water should be boiled prior to Shabbat. Unboiled water may not be added to the urns once Shabbat begins. An electric urn that is controlled by a thermostat may be used on Shabbat, provided that the water is boiled prior to Shabbat and that unboiled water is not added to it. If additional water is necessary, then a pot of water should be boiled before Shabbat and either kept on a stove covered with a tin plate (blech), or left on the countertop during Shabbat. When needed, it can be poured into the urn, provided that the water will not reach the boiling stage. These urns should not be turned off Friday night and turned on by a non-Jew on Shabbat morning, because the turning off of the urn will cause the thermostat to start anew and bring the water to a boil before shutting off. This, of course, is prohibited.

7. For a definition and outline of rules concerning these various issues, see Klein, Guide to Jewish Practice, pp. 87–88.

The Torah prohibits the ownership of chametz (leaven) during Pesah. Therefore, we arrange for the sale of the chametz to a non-Jew. […]

Since the Torah prohibits the eating of chametz during Pesah, and since many common foods contain some admixture of chametz, guidance is necessary when shopping and preparing for Pesah. During the eight days of Pesah, hametz cannot lose its identity in an admixture. Therefore, the minutest amount of hametz renders the whole admixture chametz and its use on Pesah is prohibited. However, during the rest of the year, hametz follows the normal rules of admixture, i.e., it loses its identity in an admixture of one part chametz and sixty parts of non-chametz (batel be-shishim). This affords us the opportunity to differentiate between foods purchased before and during Pesah. What follows is a general guideline. However, your rabbi should be consulted when any doubt arises.

Kasher le-Pesah labels that do not bear the name of a rabbi or one of the recognized symbols of rabbinic supervision, or which are not integral to the package, should not be used without consulting your rabbi. Prohibited foods include the following: leavened bread, cakes, biscuits, crackers, cereal, coffee with cereal derivatives in them, wheat, barley, oats, spelt, rye, and all liquids containing ingredients or flavors made from grain alcohol.

Water boiled before Shabbat may be left on the covered stove or griddle to maintain its heat on Shabbat, but it may not be boiled; that is, it must remain below 180 degrees. Adjusting the temperature of the stovetop or griddle is prohibited. Water may be heated to serving temperature before Shabbat and held in specially designated urns. 6. coffee must be prepared before Shabbat and may be left in urns or in pots on a covered stove top or griddle for serving on Shabbat. coffee and/or tea concentrates, purchased or made before Shabbat, may be diluted with heated water from the urns or pots by putting the concentrate in the serving container and then adding the heated water. coffee or tea may be made from bags or instant in the same manner. The heat under urns must be left on throughout Shabbat. The urns may be refilled from the pots of warm water (above, point 5).

Rabbi Daniel S. Nevins¹ on behalf of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards Approved by the CJLS on May 31, 2012, by a vote of 17 in favor, 2 opposed, and two abstaining.

In favor: Rabbis David Hoffman, Amy Levin, Aaron Alexander, David Booth, Miriam Berkowitz, Adam Kligfeld, Jonathan Lubliner, Jeremy Kalmanofsky, Gail Labovitz, Baruch Frydman-Kohl, Elliot Dorff, Jane Kanarak, Steven Wernick, Joshua Heller, Pamela Barmash, Reuven Hammer and Daniel Nevins. Opposed: Rabbis Avram Reisner, Elie Kaplan-Spitz. Abstaining: Rabbis Paul Plotkin and Susan Grossman.

[…]

E. Categories of Melakhah Most Relevant to the Use of Electricity:⁷⁹ From the outset of this discussion we should note that there are many established forms of melakhah which are performed through the operation of various electrical appliances. From sowing seed to transporting produce, all thirty-nine categories of labor might be performed with electrical assistance, and all would be banned under the same rubric as if done without electricity. Here the prohibition is in the activity itself, the הלועפ, whereas the use of electricity to facilitate the labor is of secondary importance. One may not claim that s/he did not intend, for example, to trim shrubs, but merely pushed the button which operated the motor of the power trimmer.⁸⁰ If one’s action is intended to result in a melakhah, then one is liable for that melakhah on Shabbat or Yom Tov whether the tool was manual or powered. We cannot list every type of appliance, but the following brief list should alert the Sabbath observer to the types of labors to consider with some household appliances used to perform them:
[…]
ןחוט — grinding — electric coffee grinder or pepper mill.
[…]

Any labor which is forbidden manually is also forbidden with electrical assistance since the physical mechanism of labor is either similar or identical, and the intention and product of the manual and power-assisted actions are identical. Moreover, ןנבר גולפ אל, the Sages do not permit unsustainable distinctions.⁸¹

Considerations of Melakhah 1. The operation of electrical circuits is not inherently forbidden as either melakhah or shvut. However, the use of electricity to power an appliance which performs melakhah with the same mechanism and intent as the original manual labor is biblically forbidden on Shabbat. For example, grinding coffee, trimming trees, sewing, etc., are all forbidden with electrical appliances in the same way as these activities are forbidden without the use of electricity, as an av melakhah. 2. The use of electricity to perform an activity with a different mechanism but for the same purpose as a melakhah is forbidden to Jews on Shabbat as a derivative labor (toledah). Such prohibitions share with the primary forms the severe status of being biblically forbidden, אתיירואד רוסא. Thus cooking with an electrical heating element or a microwave oven on Shabbat is forbidden as toledat bishul, though it is permitted on Yom Tov. 1 I wish to thank Rabbis Miriam Berkowitz, Elliot Dorff, Joshua Heller, Avram Reisner, Michael Pitkowsky, Paul Plotkin, Aaron Alexander and Jeremy Kalmanofsky for their comments to this responsum, and to clarify that they may not agree with my conclusions. All errors of fact and judgment are of course my own responsibility.

79 I am indebted to the work of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Minhat Shlomo, for many of these arguments, and to Rabbis Michael Broyde and Howard Jachter for their review of 20th-century Orthodox responsa in “The Use of Electricity on Shabbat and Yom Tov”, The Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society (XXI Spring 1991). The Israeli Zomet Institute also offers a brief article on the subject. Previous Conservative responsa have not offered a comprehensive review of these categories, but see Rabbi Isaac Klein’s survey in A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice (NY: JTS, 1979), chapter 5, esp. sections 5 and 11.
80 Unless, that is, the button is equipped as a “grama” switch which prevents the action from following directly upon the action. See discussion below.
81 See BT Yevamot 117a, Ketubot 52b, BM 53b, etc., and SA HM 117:3.

The following responsum was approved by the CJLS on December 24, 2015 by a vote of fifteen in favor, three opposed, and four abstaining (15-3-4).

Voting for: Rabbis Kassel Abelson, Pamela Barmash, David Booth, Elliot Dorff, Susan Grossman, Reuven Hammer, Joshua Heller, Jeremy Kalmanofsky, Adam Kligfeld, Gail Labovitz, Jonathan Lubliner, Daniel Nevins, Paul Plotkin, Elie Spitz, and Jay Stein.

Voting against: Rabbis Amy Levin, Micah Peltz, and Avram Reisner.

Abstaining: Rabbis Aaron Alexander, Miriam Berkowitz, Baruch Frydman-Kohl, and Noah Bickart.

Question: Why do Ashkenazic Jews refrain from eating rice, beans, and kitniyot on Pesah? Is there any way of doing away with this custom which causes much hardship and also divides Jewish communities and even members of the same family?

A Brief Summary of the Responsum:

1) In our opinion it is permitted (and perhaps even obligatory) to eliminate this custom. It is in direct contradiction to an explicit decision in the Babylonian Talmud (Pesahim 114b) and is also in contradiction to the opinion of all the Sages of the Mishnah and Talmud except one (R. Yohanan ben Nuri, Pesahim 35a and parallels). It also contradicts the theory and the practice of the Amoraim, the Geonim, and of most of the Rishonim in all geographic areas (more than 50 early medieval authorities!).

2) This custom is mentioned for the first time in France and Provence in the thirteenth century by R. Asher of Lunel, R. Samuel of Falaise, and R. Peretz of Corbeil and others — from there it spread to various countries and the list of prohibited foods continued to expand. Nevertheless, the reason for the custom was unknown and, as a result, many rabbis invented at least twelve different explanations for the custom. As a result, R. Samuel of Falaise, one of the first to mention it, referred to it as a “mistaken custom” and R. Yeruham called it a “foolish custom.”

3) Therefore, the main halakhic question in this case is whether it is permissible to do away with a mistaken or foolish custom. Many rabbinic authorities have ruled that it is permitted (and perhaps even obligatory) to do away with this type of “foolish custom” (R. Abin in Yerushalmi Pesahim, Maimonides, the Rosh, the Ribash, and many others). Furthermore, there are many good reasons to do away with this “foolish custom”: (a) It detracts from the joy of the holiday by limiting the number of permitted foods. (b) It causes exorbitant price rises which result in “major financial loss” and, as is well known, “The Torah takes pity on the people of Israel’s money.” (c) It emphasizes the insignificant (rice, beans, and legumes) and ignores the significant (hametz, which is forbidden from the five kinds of grain). (d) It causes people to disparage the commandments in general and the prohibition of hametz in particular — if this custom has no purpose and is observed, then there is no reason to observe other commandments. (e) Finally, it causes unnecessary divisions between different Jewish ethnic groups. On the other hand, there is only one reason to observe this custom: the desire to preserve an old custom. This desire does not override all that was mentioned above. Therefore, both Ashkenazim and Sephardim are permitted to eat legumes and rice on Pesah without fear of transgressing any prohibition.

4) Undoubtedly, there will be Ashkenazim who will want to stick to the “custom of their ancestors” even though they know that it is permitted to eat rice and kitniyot on Pesah. To them we suggest that they observe only the original custom of not eating rice and kitniyot, but that they use oil from legumes and all the other foods “forbidden” over the years, such as peas, garlic, mustard, sunflower seeds, peanuts, etc. (see the list below, paragraph V, 1). Thus they will be able to eat hundreds of products which bear the label “Kosher for Pesah for those who eat legumes.” This will make their lives easier and will add joy and pleasure to their observance of Pesah.

5) Finally, a crucial word of caution: In general, if one wants to use kitniyot on Pesah, one should buy products that are labeled “Kosher for Pesah for those who eat kitniyot” because hametz on Pesah is assur b’mashehu [even in the slightest amount]. This includes hundreds of Israeli products and a new line of Pesah products certified by the OU. On the other hand, if one buys kitniyot before Pesah, one can buy pure kitniyot such as rice or beans, because before Pesah any hametz is batel b’shishim, annulled by 60 times its volume (see Orah Hayyim 447:4 and Hazon Ovadia, pp. 60–61).

I. Talmudic Sources

1) Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael, Masekhta D’Pisḥa, Parashah 8, ed. Horowitz-Rabin, p. 26; ed. Lauterbach, Vol. 1, pp. 60–61: (1) “Seven days you shall eat matzot” (Exodus 12:15). I might understand this to mean all matzot? But another verse says: “You shall not eat any hametz with it” (Deut. 16:3). I meant only something that can become matzah as well as ḥametz. And which are they? They are the five species of grain, namely: wheat, barley, kusmin, shibolet shu’al, and shifon. (1a) Rice, millet, poppy seed, kitniyot, and sesame are excluded because they cannot become hametz or matzah, but only sirahon [decay].²

2) Mishnah Pesahim 2:5 = folio 35a: These are the things by which a person fulfills his obligation on Pesah: wheat, barley, kusmin, shifon, and shibolet shu’al.^1a

3) Tosefta Pisḥa 2:17, ed. Lieberman, p. 148: R. Yohanan b. Nuri says: a person fulfills his obligation even with karmit.² […]

II. Rice, Millet, and Kitniyot in the Time of the Tannaim, Amoraim, and Geonim

Most of the sources cited above (sources 1–9) clearly indicate that in the time of the Tannaim (before 200 CE) there were two main approaches regarding the status of rice, millet, and kitniyot. Most of the Sages, including Rabbi Yishmael, were of the opinion that only the five species of grain were liable to hallah and can become hametz or matzah. On the other hand, Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri was of the opinion that karmit was liable to hallah and that rice also leavened and could be used to fulfill the obligation of matzah on Pesah. According to the editors of the Yerushalmi (source 8), they tested karmit and Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri and the Sages disagreed over the results of this test. In any case, even without Rav Ashi’s explicit ruling (source 10), we would be required to rule according to the Sages because, as is well known, “one [Sage] vs. the majority, the halakhah follows the majority” (Berakhot 9a and parallels). […]

III. The Rishonim — those who permit eating rice and kitniyot on Pesah

The overwhelming majority of Rishonim who addressed our issue ruled that it is permissible — in accordance with the Sages, Rav Huna, Rava, and Rav Ashi. Maimonides is typical of this approach in his Mishneh Torah (Hilkhot Ḥametz U-Matzah, 5:1): There is no prohibition regarding ḥametz on Pesah, other than the five species of grain… but kitniyot such as rice and millet, beans and lentils and the like cannot become ḥametz, so even if one kneads rice flour and the like in boiling water and covers it with a cloth until it rises like dough that has fermented — it is […] IV. The Rishonim — the custom of prohibiting rice and kitniyot and its many explanations In 13th-century France we hear for the first time of the custom of prohibiting rice and kitniyot on Pesah. […]

V. Expanding and Spreading the Custom

From the 13th century onward, this custom spread in three directions: 1. In Ashkenaz and in Eastern Europe, they expanded the custom and additional prohibitions were piled on. At different points, the following foods were prohibited — but the halakhic authority who cites the custom sometimes disagrees with it. [The exact references can be found in the Hebrew version of this teshuvah.]: The use of kitniyot oil in a lamp hanging over the table (R. Yisrael Isserlein; R. Ya’akov Mollin); krom kimmel (caraway seeds sold in a store; R. David Halevi, Taz); peas (Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Margaliyot); tea (Rabbi Ya’akov Reisher); coffee (various rabbis); potatoes (Rabbi Ya’akov Emden and Rabbi Avraham Danzig); green Egyptian beans (Rabbi Ya’akov Emden); kitniyot oil (Rabbi Ya’akov Emden); peanuts (ET, note 732); radish and garlic (ibid., note 734; R. Yosef Te’omim; R. Hayyim Hizkiyah Medini); sesame seeds (ET, note 709); tatarke (buckwheat; ibid., note 710); mustard (ibid., note 714); sunflower seeds (ibid., notes 719–720). Moreover, in Ashkenaz they were so strict with regard to this practice that many prohibited kitniyot even in times of emergency, such as during a famine or plague. This phenomenon reached its peak in the 19th century in an episode known as the “kitniyot wars.” On the other hand, there were authorities who permitted kitniyot in times of emergency. (See Rabbi Zevin, pp. 260–262; Rabbi Rosenbaum, pp. 100–101; Rabbi Leiter; Rabbi Seigel; Rabbi Felder, pp. 401–406).