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Ask the Rabbi: answers from Project Genesis rabbis
Is it permitted to eat garlic on Passover? If not, why not?
There are different customs regarding the use of garlic on Passover. Believe it or not, the basis for the stringency that some have of not eating garlic is not even known. However, as with many customs, those who have the custom to refrain from eating garlic should abide by it. One who does not know what his personal custom is can be lenient. [My personal practice is not to be stringent.]
Rabbi Moshe Rosenstein
In the 1970’s, my mother visited Israel. In the home of a relative, the kitchen was small and the food storage area inefficient. Cloves of garlic, still attached to their “vines” were braided together and hung over the stove. Garlic, which is harvested in the fall, needs to be kept in a dry place so that it does not get rancid. Because of the less-than-adequate facilities available, the garlic was braided and hung over the stove. For the length of the winter, it would stay there – over the stove. Since then, I have learned that this was commonly the way to store garlic and the same was done by our grandparents years ago. Wouldn’t this be a good reason to forbid the use of garlic on Passover? Would you feel comfortable using a food item on Passover after it hung for months over your non-Passover stove?
Its sounds like it may be the source for the custom not to use garlic. The garlic we get is produced in bulk without those issues. I did not do any research on this subject but I can say in a general sense that they may be items/issues which we look at today and see a problem and should respond accordingly within the community where the issue exists – hence a custom may arise for that community – but our Sages did not see this as a universal issue and we do not have any formal enactment or ban with regard to that particular issue.
All the best,
Rabbi Yirmiyahu Benyowitz
I was looking to see if anyone writes about the topic, and at first I had not found any that mentioned a reason (there are a number of sources that mention that they do not see any reason to forbid it). I then thought of another place to look. I now found that it is quoted from sources that the custom did not include “green” garlic i.e. freshly picked garlic. This might fit in with your information. The S’dei Chemed quotes a source saying that he heard that the reason is because some people used to soak the garlic in an alcoholic beverage but that he does not think that is the reason.
All the best,
Rabbi Yirmiyahu Benyowitz