Rabbi Sherlo: Ban products that look like chametz
Head of Petah Tikva hesder yeshiva answers woman who accidentally ate chametz cake placed on kosher-for-Pesach shelf at supermarket
Kosher-for-Pesach products that resemble chametz (leavened) products should be banned during the holiday, "and the world's rabbis should be called together to decree a ban" on such products, said Rabbi Yuval Sherlo, head of the Hesder Yeshiva in Petah Tikva and one of the founders of the Tzohar rabbinical organization.
In a Q&A session on the yeshiva's website, one visitor recounted how she had accidentally failed to observe the holiday after her hosts at a Saturday event had not noticed that a particular product was not kosher for Pesach.
"We visited my in-laws, observant Jews who follow the laws of kashrut," she wrote. "After we ate from a cake produced by Elite, I looked at the ingredients and to my surprise, noticed that it contained wheat flour. Needless to say, we didn't find a kosher-for-Pesach sign on the box once we searched."
"My mother-in-law said she hadn't noticed and that the product had been on the kosher-for-Pesach rack in the supermarket," the writer continued.
In response, the Rabbi wrote that a prohibition on eating products similar to chametz is required and is more important than many other regulations surrounding Pesach, which he said are sometimes 'silly'.
"Of course, it's important to check each and every product purchased for Pesach, but also I think that Elite products for Pesach look too similar to those containing chametz."
"As such, it is important to make a distinction in order to avoid such incidents," he said.
"There is something totally unreasonable in the fact that we don't eat kitniyot (legumes), which actually have no significance for the holiday and which we do only out of custom (which is important), and through the back door allow things that are much more severe."
