LTHForum.com

Fairly well explained article on one of the more obscure laws of kashruth, why some foods must be cooked by a Jew in order to be kosher, but others may be cooked by gentiles.

http://www.star-k.org/kashrus/kk-issues-bishul.htm

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

Obscure Passover rules

Kitniyot are legumes, rice and a few other things that divide Jews during Passover. Ashkenazim (Jews of Eastern and Central European background) don't eat them; Sephardim (Jews whose ancesters came from Spain and the Middle East) do.

So what happens when an Ashkenazi and a Sephardi marry?

Also: How much wine, matzo and bitter herb must you consume during the seder?

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

You are supposed to drink 4 glasses of wine during the sedar 2 before the meal and two after. There is no amount on the bitter herb but a little should be eaten. I don't remember the amount of matzo you are supposed to eat, I don't think there is a specific amount but I do know you only have to eat matzo per se at the first and second sedar. You do have to have a taste at each sedar however. After the sedar you are supposed to keep the mitzvah of no unleavened product but you don't have to have a taste of matzo the cracker with each meal.
Paulette

Sorry, I guess it wasn't obvious that I wasn't asking but linking to somebody's answers.

According to link above (the Union of Orthodox Rabbis), you should use a glass that holds 3.3 fluid ounces of wine and drink more half for each of the four cups; eat more than a third of a matzo; and consume at least 0.7 fluid ounces of ground horseradish, 80 square inches of lettuce leaves or 15 square inches of stalks. Moreover, the drinking of each cup of wine and the eating of the matzah and maror should be completed within four minutes. L'chiam!

And according to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, an Ashkenazi can eat kosher-for-Passover food that's been cooked with kitniyot, as long he doesn't eat the kitniyot itself, which is no doubt a great relief in such mixed marriages.

Of course, one should consult one's own rabbi in all such matters. I am not a halachic authority nor do I play one on TV.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

According to this, it's OK to keep shrimp in your house during Passover if you're using it to feed your cat, but you can't keep grain-based dog biscuits unless they are kosher for Passover.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

Reb Laz: Are you observant of these rules?

Asked by The Wicked Son

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Without coffee, chocolate and beer, in that order, life as we know it would not be possible.

Like most Jews, I am observant about some things and not about others. But the minutiae of Jewish food practices fascinate me, even when I don't personally follow them.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

I, too, am fascinated by rules I don't believe it.

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Without coffee, chocolate and beer, in that order, life as we know it would not be possible.