Nougat ice-cream on Rosh Hashana

Question

Is one allowed to eat nougat ice-cream on Rosh Hashana. (The problem is that nougat is made of ground nuts.)

Answer

As far as nuts are concerned – the custom of most communities is not to forbid eating small amounts of nuts when they are mixed with other ingredients and aren’t significant in the dish. However, there are communities that forbid even this minute admixture of nuts. If you don’t know that you ancestors’ custom was to forbid this, you can rely on the lenient custom.

The problem with hazelnuts is that they cause one to salivate excessively, which can interfere with the Rosh Hashana prayers. The problem is not that numerical value of this nut is equal to the numerical value of the word “sin”. Therefore, there is absolutely no problem with ice-cream.

If the ice-cream is only “nougat-flavored” or “nut-flavored”, it could be that it doesn’t contain any real nuts at all.

Source

Shulchan Oruch, section Orach Chaim, ch. 583, § 2 in the Remo commentary and in the commentary of the Magen Avraham, subsection 4

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