Pesach’s Not Full Of Beans This Year (NY Jewish Week, re kitniyot)

Read the full article here.

"The change [allowing Conservative Ashkenazim to eat kitniyot during Passover] was based on a paper presented to the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards by Rabbi David Golinkin. In it, he explained that because kitniyot were the food of mourners among different peoples, such as the Romans in antiquity, Ashkenazi Jews began refraining from eating it on Jewish festivals. Over time, the restriction was applied specifically to Passover.

But, he wrote, it is a “foolish custom” or a “mistaken custom” because it “contradicts the Babylonian Talmud and all the Talmudic sources, and because nearly all the Jews who observed this custom throughout the generations thought it was connected somehow or other to the prohibition against eating chametz [food made with a leavening agent].”

Rabbi Ain pointed out that for “all of the leniencies of the Conservative movement, this is an area they [her congregants] are not running to [embrace]. On the other hand, it took away much of the angst from those who are vegetarians or have other dietary concerns. They can still halachically keep kosher for Passover and eat in a way that is healthy.”"


You can read about my own approach to kitniyot here.