By David Holzel

ROCKVILLE, Md. (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — On Passover, Lynne Sandler will be passing on the beans and rice.

Sandler, a member of Conservative Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, Virginia, said she won’t take advantage of her movement’s ruling in December that permits eating a category of food called kitniyot that includes rice, beans and other legumes. These foods have always been eaten by Sephardi Jews on Passover, but have been banned by Ashkenazi rabbis since the 1200s.

“We won’t be doing anything different this year,” Sandler said. “We’ve lived our lives without it.”

But others are relieved by the lifting of the kitniyot ban by the movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. By dispensing with a custom whose roots in Jewish law are relatively recent as such things go, they argue, the ruling responds to modern concerns over nutrition, finances and even Jewish unity.

All three factors are weighed in the ‘teshuvah,’ or ruling, which passed with 19 rabbis in favor, one opposed and two abstaining. Rabbi Amy Levin of Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Bridgeport co-authored the teshuvah, together with Rabbi Avram Israel Reisner.

“Rabbi Reisner and I hope very much that those who read our teshuvah will come away understanding that we are not instructing Ashkenazic Jews to abandon this minhag —custom — but rather we are providing a halakhic basis and practical guidelines for those Ashkenazim who do decide to expand their food choices during Pesach,” Levin told the Jewish Ledger.

With many Jews complaining about the high cost of eating during Passover, and the lack of healthy packaged foods, the committee’s ruling referred to the “extremely inflated cost of products under Pesach supervision.” It added: “Were kitniyot to be permitted, beans and rice could be served with vegetables and dairy to largely supplant the demand for other packaged products and more expensive sources of protein for those who chose to do so, an option that is significantly limited today.”

The eight-page ruling also discussed unity among the Jewish people.

The Conservative movement in Israel has permitted eating kitniyot since 1989. Even some Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbis in Israel have been lenient with followers.

The Torah mentions five types of grain that can become leavened, or chametz, if they remain in water for more than 18 minutes: wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt. These grains are banned on Passover, except as matzah.

But why are kitniyot — rice, millet, beans, lentils and the like — banned, since they cannot become chametz? A number of reasons arose in Ashkenazi communities in the 1200s. One is that rice and legumes are sometimes mixed with wheat; to avoid an accidental mixture, kitniyot was banned altogether.

“Another is if we allow kitniyot porridge, we will eat grain porridge because both are cooked in a pot,” Rabbi David Golinkin, a Conservative authority in Israel, wrote in a 2013 teshuvah. And if rice or bean flour can be baked into bread, someone might mistakenly think that it is all right to eat bread on Passover made from wheat or rye flour.

“None of these reasons appear cogent, however, in the present age when we purchase our flours, rice and beans in discrete packages, well-marked as to their content, under governmental supervision,” according to the Conservative ruling. “In such a marketplace there should be no concern of confusing a permission of kitniyot with one of grains and it should be eminently possible to prohibit one while permitting the other.”

Even before the ruling, the Conservative movement already permitted eating kitniyot for vegetarians and vegans, in consultation with a rabbi.

In its ruling, the committee also pointed to “our inclination in our day to present an accessible Judaism unencumbered by unneeded prohibitions [and] more easily able to participate in the culture that surrounds us.”

But some worry the ruling may make things look a lot less restrictive than they actually are. There are no processed kitniyot products that certified kosher-for-Passover— thus, a standard bag of rice, for example, needs to be checked for chametz before the holiday begins.

Sharon Samber, a member of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C., welcomed the loosening of the strict kitniyot rules.

“It makes life easier, and you need as much of that as you can on Passover,” she said.

The focus on the minutiae of the holiday often comes at the expense of Passover’s larger meaning, Samber said.

“I hope this helps us focus on the more meaningful parts of Passover — discussing what it means to be free and who isn’t free today,” she said.

For others, heeding the minutiae actually enhances the holiday.

“I will probably stick to tradition,” said Marcie Lerner, a member of Kehilat Shalom. “Just like there are traditional Torah-mandated foods for Passover, there are familial and traditional foods that help keep heritage and memories alive. Also, old habits die hard.”

Levin validates both of these feelings.

“Not infrequently, we hear something along the lines of ‘intellectually I get what you’re saying, but I just don’t know if I can ‘go there’,” she told the Ledger. “I understand this kind of response very well. As it should be, when it comes to issues of faith and practice in our homes and communities, we are guided by rationality, spirituality and emotion. Judaism speaks to our minds, our souls, our hearts.”

Levin understands the pull of tradition all too well. “When I make lentil soup on Pesach, I’ll use a pot I’ve purchased myself — I doubt I’ll be able to bring myself to use one of the Pesach pots I inherited from my grandmother!”

David Holzel is the Managing Editor at Washington Jewish Week.

This article includes additional reporting by the Jewish Ledger.