Some Pesach thoughts

[xiphias]

1. This Pesach, I had to do something I'd not had to do before -- throw out my shaving cream and moisturizing lotion. They had oatmeal in them. Stuff works great, but is unquestionably chametz. (Anything with wheat, oats, barley, rye, or spelt that ISN'T matzah is chametz. Aveeno products with Natural Colloidal Oatmeal pretty definitely count.) I'm glad to get back to my preferred brand: not putting oatmeal on my face for a week was much more difficult for me than not putting it in my face.
   
2. I can think of two GOOD consequences of the custom of kitnyot (Rabbis in Eastern Europe decided to treat beans, legumes, corn, and rice as if they were chametz, as well, even though they're not -- that custom is called "kitnyot". Therefore, in the United States and other areas, people whose ancestors came from those ancestors still follow that custom, and people whose ancestors are from Spain, France, northern Africa, and other places don't have the custom.)
   
   First is Pesach Coke. Since corn syrup is made from corn, it's kitnyot (except for people who follow the ruling that it's not). So, for one week a year, you can get, in the United States, Coca-Cola with sugar instead of HFCS. Tastier, and, as we're finding out, somewhat less unhealthy. Somewhat.
   
   Second is the Maxwell House Haggadah. In 1937, General Foods put together a decent, bare-bones Haggaddah with a big ole Maxwell House Coffee logo on the front.
   
   Why?
   
   Because they wanted to get the word out that coffee "beans" were actually berries, and therefore not kitnyot, and therefore, Ashkenazic Jews could still drink coffee on Pesach. So they made a real simple, real cheap Haggaddah which they gave away free with purchase of certified-kosher-for-Passover-Maxwell-House products. And they still do so today.
   
   And this means that ANY Jewish family -- or non-Jewish family that is interested in the Passover Seder -- can get a cheap free, perfectly serviceable Haggaddah so they can have a seder. Are there better haggadot out there? Heck, yes. Pretty much every haggadah out there is better in some way or another -- because Maxwell House sets the baseline. If you're not better than the free one, you don't play. And, because the free one is perfectly acceptable, it means that EVERY haggadah has to be at least that usable. And it wouldn't exist without a coffee company needing to let people know that coffee isn't made from actual beans.
   
3. I don't follow the laws of kitnyot for myself. And Lis does, and I respect that. So we don't have kitnyot in the house. But, if one doesn't follow the rules of kitnyot, one has to actually actively not follow the rules of kitnyot at some point during Pesach.
   
   I had a bartending gig during Pesach at the MIT Faculty club. Okay, on the last day of Pesach. (Which is technically a holiday on which one is not supposed to work. Ooops. But the gig didn't really get going until after sunset. So, even though I STARTED work before Pesach ended, I didn't actually handle any beers until AFTER Pesach . . . ) Before my shift, I got food at the nearby food court.
   
   I got ma po tofu over steamed rice. No chametz, nothing treif, but 100% kitnyot. I thought that was amusing.