halaca of rice on pesach

Question

Regarding the law of eating rice on Pesach. Certainly from the Halacha there is no problem to eat rice on Pesach. We lern in Gemara Pesachim tells us that one of the items on the night of Pesach that we used to eat, for the two cooked foods that you are supposed to eat which are Zecher LiKorban Pesach and LiKorban Chagiga, was rice. You see clearly from the times of the Gemara they used to eat rice on Pesach. The Gemara even discusses whether or not you can use rice flour in order to make Matzot. The Gemara answers no to this, but you see that it was a question. They answered that it was not because of Chametz, but because it was not one of the grains. The bottom line is that you see that rice was not a problem Only in modern history did the issue arise. It was about 200 – 300 years ago when the rice fields used to be next to the wheat fields, and they used to use the same bags. They used the same sacks for wheat as they used to package the rice. So it was very common that you would have some wheat that would fall in the rice because the bags were not fully cleaned out after each use. Hence, it was possible to find wheat and rice together, and it became possible on Pesach to have a problem and find wheat mixed in with rice. It is permissible to eat rice on Pesach so long as you check it 3 times before you eat it, and remove any wheat kernels that are found. It is still possible today to find some wheat mixed in. People that check rice will tell you that it is possible to find some kernels of wheat mixed in. How and why this happens is a good question. The bottom line is that it is there. Therefore it’s proper to take the rice and put it on a white cloth, and sift through it, in order that the dark pieces of wheat will become visible. It’s preferable not to check three times in a row, because you get tired by the third time, and you might not do a good checking. It is not proper to have minors check as you can not trust them when it comes to this issue. For that matter you also can’t trust the maids to check the rice. You must have girls that are over 12 years old or boys over 13 that are responsible that know what they are looking for and check the rice three times. ~~this story is borrowed from my rabbis web site:~~ There is a story about the Peri Chadash who was Sephardic, who followed the Minhag to eat rice, which was unlike the Ashkenazim. He resided in a country where they would never have such a problem of wheat becoming mixed up with rice. What happened? On one of the nights of Pesach, he saw a big fat wheat kernel that opened up right on top of his rice. So he accepted upon himself from that day on that he would not eat rice on Pesach. So you see that it can happen even in our lands.