ots@ohrtorahstone.org.il

Q: I am going on vacation with my family for the entire holiday of Pesach, returning home only after the chag. Do I have to do bedikat chametz?

A: If you will be in your home during the 30 days prior to the chag, you are required to do bedikat chametz. However, only if you do the checking on the 14th of Nisan do you have to check with the bracha. If you will be leaving your home prior to the 14th of Nisan you must do the bedika without a blessing.

Q: I am an Ashkenazi, married to a Sephardic woman. My wife's parents want us to spend Pesach with them but they eat kitniyot, including rice. What should I do?

A: It is an important and ingrained custom for Jews of Ashkenazic descent not to eat kitniyot - legumes - on Pesach; a custom held by gdolei yisrael throughout the generations including Harav Yaakov Emdin and the Hatam Sofer. The sole exceptions are during times of emergency, poverty or, G-d forbid, war, in which cases one may be lenient with regard to kitniyot. With that, there are no poskim who maintain that kitniyot are chametz; therefore, an Ashkenazi may eat at the home of an observant Sephardi as long as he does not partake of the kitniyot themselves. I would like to emphasize that he is allowed to eat foods that have been cooked in the same pot as kitniyot have been cooked, as long as he does not eat the kitniyot themselves.

If you have a question for Q & A, send it to ots@ohrtorahstone.org.il . We cannot guarantee that all questions received will be answered in this column.

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