Something I never understood about Pesach dietary laws

The whole point of the dietary change during Passover, as I understood it, was to eliminate leavening (yeast) from the diet because they didn't have it when going through the desert.

Why, then, do we eliminate whole grains, which have nothing direct to do with the leavening? Why is it okay to make matzoh with whole grains, but only okay to eat foods made with crushed matzoh as a "grain" instead of the same types of grains used to make the matzoh?

This never made sense to me, and nobody has ever explained it.

Another Judaica question

I have looked all over the Internet and have not found a direct answer to this question.

If you are a Reform Jew, your mother is Sephardic, and your father is Ashkenazic, are you Sephardic, Ashkenazic, or can you choose depending upon how you were raised?

Happy birthday kitanzi!

Hope you're enjoying (at least some of) the day!

Also a belated happy birthday to patoadam! Hope it was a good one!

Birthday meme

Shamelessly ganked from filkerdave, I've just saved gridlore, happy_fun_paul, and it_aint_easy from having to run this one:

Your Birthdate: July 4

Being born on the 4th day of the month should help make you a better manager and organizer. You may be more responsible and self-disciplined than you realize. Sincere and honest, you are a serious and hard working individual. Your feelings are likely to seem somewhat repressed at times. The number 4 has something of an inhibiting effect on your ability to show and express affections, as feeling are very closely regulated and controlled. You are apt to be much more practical, rational, and conscious of details. There is a good deal of rigidity and stubbornness associated with the number 4.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?