Rice on Pesach

Q: Why do some Jews eat rice on Passover?

A: Sephardim or oriental Jews will eat rice while those of us from Ashkenazic lines do not.

In the Middle Ages, European Jewry adopted the practice of burning rice on Pesach as your precautionary measure. Since rice strongly resembles other types of forbidden grains, people might be tempted to consume them. 

And in a fermented state, the consumption of wheat or other grains during Pesach would abrogate the Law.

It is not appropriate for Ashkenazic Jews to eat rice on Pesach in the custom of their ancestors. For him, rice is hametz.

Historically, it has been suggested that the Sephardim, dependent upon price as a dietary staple, could not afford to dispense with it. Since the law does not directly prohibit rice, the Sephardim maintained it was halachically acceptable. Ashkenazic Jewry, on the other hand, never depended upon rice.

Of late there have been challenges to this Law. Many notable figures have posited that it may be time for a shift in the law now that the boundaries of Ashkenazim and Sephardim are more blurred and the likelihood of one grain with another is small.