Abundance of Kosher L’Pesach Products [#2244]

March 27, 2019

Question:

Today there are hundreds and thousands of products that fill the kosher supermarkets which are labeled as “Kosher for Pesach”, listed as mehadrin (the strictest standards of kashrus). What should be the inner attitude towards this? Are we supposed to be bringing all of these products into our homes so that the family can have more simchah (for, as the Rambam says, that one gladdens his children on Yom Tov by giving them candies, nuts, and sweets)? Or, are we supposed to cling to the custom of the previous generations, by not bringing in anything from the outside into our homes [as in the dictum, “Chadash (in this context, ‘new items’) is prohibited by the Torah”?

Answer:

It is proper to live as close as possible to the way that the previous generations lived. At the same time, one also needs to act according to his current madreigah (spiritual level), and he must also take into account the madreigah that his family is on, and to cater to their personalities.