Chadash
In Judaism, Chadash is a concept within Kashrut, based on the Biblical requirement not to eat any grain of the new year prior to the annual Omer offering on the 16th day of Nisan.
Grain products which are no longer affected by this law are referred to as Yashan .
The five types of grain
In Rabbinic Judaism, this requirement is restricted to the five species of grain – wheat, barley, spelt, rye and a fifth shibolet shual. Any of these grains that are too "young" to pass the requirement are referred to in Judaism as chadash "new ". Additionally, the rabbinic interpretation requires grain to have taken root prior to the Omer offering for it to become permitted; therefore, grains planted after Passover could only be consumed, at the earliest, twelve months later.Following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the Omer offering was no longer offered. Instead, Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai interpreted the Biblical law that the new grain harvest becomes permissible at the end of the day on which the offering was brought in ancient times. The Sages of Israel enacted a one-day further delay outside of the Land of Israel because of the extra day of holiday outside the Land of Israel.
Outside the land of Israel
The applicability of the Chadash rules to grain grown outside the Land of Israel is a subject of debate among halakhic authorities. Although the Mishnah and Babylonian Talmud record a Tannaitic dispute about applicability outside Israel the majority of medieval Jewish scholars forbade its consumption. The later codifiers of Jewish law for Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewry followed suit, both Rabbi Moses Isserles and Rabbi Joseph Caro declaring the stringent position.Nevertheless, the same Rabbi Isserles also ruled that, because in general, in cases of purchased grain there is a double doubt as to
- whether the grain was harvested before Passover of that year and
- whether, even if harvested after Passover of that year, it took root before Passover of that year
In addition a novel lenient approach was presented by Rabbi Yoel Sirkis who felt it is permissible if the grain originally belonged to a non-Jew. Additionally, the manner in which various foods have historically been available has meant that Jewish populations would need to risk starvation to pursue stringent compliance with this aspect of kashrut. All these factors led to a situation in which observation of the Yashan regulation was relatively limited until very recently.
In Chabad literature
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the author of Tanya and Shulchan Aruch HaRav, quotes the basic opinion of Chadash being forbidden Midioraita and after considering the leniency of Rabbi Yoel Sirkis writes that - even for wheat harvested from a non-Jewish field – a "Baal Nefesh" should be scrupulous and not rely on lenient rabbinic opinions. Similarly, Rabbi Schneur Zalman notes in a responsum that in generations prior to his the custom was to take the lenient approach but in his generation many have assumed the stringency of not consuming Chadash.Rabbi Schneur Zalman's son, the Mitteler Rebbe, explains in a Maamar the important aspect of the Kohen bringing the Omer offering on the Mizbeach and only then is the consumption of wheat permitted.
From the writing of his followers, it has recently been published that Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn – the fifth Chabad Rebbe – was scrupulous in refraining from Chadash products when he attended a Siyyum of Yeshivah students.