kitniyot?קטניות

Pesach/Passover פסח is the feast of unleavened bread.

Jews eat lots of matzah/unleavened bread מצה and avoid chametz/leavened food חמץ during this week that celebrates miraculous salvation from slavery and death to become people of God.

Some Jews also avoid kitniyot/legumes קטניות during Passover.

A conversation with my daughter got me thinking about what differentiates chametz and kitniyot.

Similarity:

both chametz and kitniyot are foods that expand

Difference:

chametz is puffed up by leaven

kitniyot are puffed up by water

Leaven in Scripture often represents sins such as pride, malice, idolatry, and false teachings - attributing excessive, expanded, puffed up value to anything other than God:

טַהֲרוּ מִכֶּם אֶת הַשְּׂאוֹר הַיָּשָׁן לְמַעַן תִּהְיוּ עִסָּה חֲדָשָׁה, כְּפִי הֱיוֹתְכֶם מַצּוֹת; כִּי הַפֶּסַח שֶׁלָּנוּ הוּא הַמָּשִׁיחַ שֶׁנִּזְבַּח בַּעֲדֵנוּ. עַל כֵּן נַעֲשֶׂה אֶת הַחַג לֹא בִּשְׂאוֹר יָשָׁן וְלֹא בִּשְׂאוֹר הָרֹעַ וְהַמְּרִירוּת, אֶלָּא בִּשְׂאוֹר הַטֹּהַר וְהַקְּדֻשָּׁה.

אגרת שאול הראשונה אל הקורינתים ה:ו-ז

"Purify from you the old leaven

so that you will be new dough,

in accordance with being unleavened bread;

for our Passover offering

is the Messiah who has been sacrificed for us.

Therefore we will keep the festival

not with old leaven

and not with the leaven of evil and bitterness,

but with the leaven of purity and holiness."

1 Corinthians 5:6-7

Water in Scripture often represents the Word:

יַעֲרֹ֤ף כַּמָּטָר֙ לִקְחִ֔י תִּזַּ֥ל

כַּטַּ֖ל אִמְרָתִ֑י

כִּשְׂעִירִ֣ם עֲלֵי־דֶ֔שֶׁא

וְכִרְבִיבִ֖ים עֲלֵי־עֵֽשֶׂב

דברים לב:ב

"May my discourse come down like rain,

my speech like the dew;

like showers on grass,

like raindrops on herbs."

Deuteronomy 32:2

Water cleanses and nourishes.

Perhaps the leaven of purity and holiness

which expands us correctly

is the water of the Word of God.