January 2025

The advent of baking oat matzah for Pesach is a relatively new phenomenon. As one of the Five Grains, oats qualify as an ingredient for matzah. Until circa 5740 (1980s), however, it never appeared in recorded halacha as something that was done in actual practice.

If someone with a wheat allergy can tolerate spelt, matzah made from spelt is an ideal alternative. Spelt and wheat are closely related both structurally and halachically. Additionally, some suggest that the order of grains in the Mishnah has significance. Thus, spelt, which appears third in the list, takes precedence over rye or oats. Others reject this notion and hold that position on the list does not indicate hierarchy for matzah.

What are the options for people who suffer from celiac disease, an inherited autoimmune disorder identified in the 1950s as being triggered by gliadin peptides (small proteins) in gluten? If the severity of the condition allows, after consultation with a competent medical opinion, one can eat a single kezayis of regular wheat (or spelt) matzah to fulfill the mitzvah on a Torah level. In this instance, one would skip Motzi Matzah and Koreich and eat the kezayis for Afikoman, at the end of the seudah. But if even this minimal amount isn’t tolerated, Acharonim debate whether there is any merit to ingesting less than a kezayis. Otherwise, the individual is an anus and exempt from the mitzvah.

That’s how it was until the early 1980s when Rabbi Ephraim Kestenbaum, an industrial chemist in Golders Green, London, was prompted by his young daughter, who was diagnosed with celiac, to solve the dilemma. He had the novel idea to take advantage of oats being included on the list of Five Grains. Different from the other four, oats are an outlier since they alone do not contain gluten naturally. Although, care must be taken during cultivation and processing to protect the oats from becoming cross-contaminated by gluten particles lingering in fields or on equipment shared with other products. He embarked on an unprecedented venture to make matzah from oat flour.

To read more on this fascinating topic, please go to The Rise of Oat Matzos, a deeply researched scholarly article that traces the development oat matzah throughout the decades, from rarity until becoming a relatively common and accepted food item worldwide.