My understanding is that most Ashkenazic communities today don't eat green beans on Passover, treating them as kitniyot (a bunch of legumes for which the custom arose to avoid on Passover). What's the earliest source/discussion on this?
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1When it comes to Pesach, you can find customs prohibiting almost anything, from potatoes to carrots to coffee. Are you looking specifically for an opinion that green beans are kitniyos?– הנער הזהMar 18, 2015 at 6:30
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2 Answers
Sefer She'arim HaMetzuyanim BeHalacha (published appx 1950), commenting on the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (Siman 117, Si'if Katan 7), mentions that green beans and, apparently, peas, may be considered Kitniyos as well.
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14619&st=&pgnum=113
I have since found online in the name of Rabbi Elazar M'Vermiza רבי אלעזר מוורמייזא that he said in a Pesach Drasha that we do not eat "Polin V'Adashim" since there is wheat mixed in with them.
בדרשה לפסח של רבי אלעזר מוורמייזא הוא מספר בקצרה "ומה שאין אוכלין פולין ועדשים, מפני שיש בהן חיטין"
answered Mar 24, 2011 at 18:55
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Hm, it seems like every source he's quoting is saying green beans should be okay, no?– ShalomMar 24, 2011 at 19:57
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Wikipedia: Green beans are the unripe fruit of any kind of bean ... varieties have been bred especially for ... their pods. Here's my reading of the source: "Yad Yitzchak prohibited legumes that are still green and in their pods, but the immature ones, i.e. pods in which the seeds haven't sprouted, were allowed ... they weren't included in the prohibition and it makes no sense for the prohibition to apply to them ... See Maharash who prohibited legumes-in-the-pod, but the pods alone weren't a question ... see similarly in Eshel Avraham ...– ShalomMar 25, 2011 at 13:01
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2I spoke over this question with Rav Ephraim Greenblatt. He was clueless as to why anyone would say that green-beans are kitniyos. He seemed unaware that people did not eat them on Pesach. I spoke to Dayan Fuerst (of Chicago) about it one Purim and (I do not believe he was being serious) he said "It's because they are called beans! Another point: Shearim Metzuyanim BeHalacha and other recent "Likut Seforim" and responsa call it "Gezeiras Kitniyos". There never was a gezeirah. Rav Moshe Feinstein explains that the Rabbanim were manhig (led, guided) their followers to not eat it. It is a minhag.– YahuMar 25, 2011 at 13:41
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Greenbeans are technically the fruit of P. vulgaris, a plant whose cultivars produce kidney beans, navy beans, and pinto beans, which are considered kitniyot in common Ashkenazi practice.
answered Jun 6, 2016 at 15:24
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I don't understand how this answers the question. Leaves aren't Kitniyot. How do you know pods, which can't be ground into flour and don't resemble wheat in any way, are Kitniyot?– Double AA ♦Jun 6, 2016 at 15:29
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@DoubleAA, the pods contain beans, which may be dried and ground into flour. Jun 6, 2016 at 16:30
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Is that true? How do you know that? And did anyone do that? Does anyone do that? Just because there is a mini-bean-fetus in there doesn't make it a fruit. Seemingly you couldn't separate Maaser yet, for instance. It's not Pol HaLavan / Shlish Giddul, I'd think.– Double AA ♦Jun 6, 2016 at 16:39
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@DoubleAA, I can't prove it, because I can't scan a greenbean (3d) into my computer. However, this is my experience in eating greenbeans for most of my life. Furthermore, when have Pesach chumrot been logical or specifically halachic in nature? Jun 6, 2016 at 16:43
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I don't understand your comment. Your eating green beans doesn't show they can be ground into flour (or that anyone has done so), and if your argument is merely "nothing makes sense" then it doesn't answer the question.– Double AA ♦Jun 6, 2016 at 16:45