Q. Hello Rav, My wife lights Shabbat candles with edible kosher olive oil every week. Just before Pesach I noticed in the COR magazine that olive oil requires a Pesach Hechtsher. I was wondering if the olive oil she uses exclusively for lighting would also need to be special for Pesach. If the concern is a kitniyot issue, would the Halacha be different for us Sephardim?
A. On question 4190 regarding if someone who usually lights Neiros Shabbos and Yom Tov using oil, can light during Pesach with Kitniyos Oil, we wrote: “Mishna Berura (453: 10) rules that in principle it is permitted since the Kitniyos prohibition applies only in eating them, and not to deriving benefit from them which is allowed.
However, he adds that it is apparent that people are usually stringent in using such oil for candle lighting, since the Kitniyos grain could actually contain some chometz grains mixed into it.
Yet Poskim permit, when the oil used has a proper Hechsher and is used for Sephardim that permit Kitniyos.
Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that it is permitted, yet it is preferred to keep the oil container with those
lights, properly separated from the food. (See also Piskei Teshivos ibid 7).”
The same would obviously apply to Sephardim.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised By Horav Dovid Pam Shlit’a,Horav Aharon Miller Shlit’a and Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu Shlit'a
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