Chadash - Outside of The Land of Israel

Outside of 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. The majority of medieval Jewish scholars (e.g. Moses Maimonides, the Rif, and the Rosh) 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. A radically 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. These two factors led to a situation in which observation of the Yashan regulation was relatively limited until very recently (at least in the Ashkenazic community).