The Passover Rules Bend,
if Just for One Pandemic
During the holiday, many observant Jews get rid of bread and beans,
pasta and rice. But that’s exactly the stuff that gets you through self-
isolation.
pasta and rice. But that’s exactly the stuff that gets you through self-
isolation.
During the coronavirus outbreak, people have stocked up on shelf-stable items like beans, pasta and bread to sustain them through weeks of staying at home.
But, in an untimely coincidence, some Jews do not eat those foods during Passover, which starts Wednesday at sundown. Many are caught in a quandary: A pandemic pantry does limit potentially dangerous trips to the grocery store, but its contents are against tradition.
“There definitely is a cadre of people that are saying, ‘We don’t know how long this quarantine is going to last,’” said Rabbi Hara Person, the chief executive of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, an organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada. “‘We don’t know what food supplies are going to be, and so we don’t want to give our food away.’”
Lyndon French for The New York Times
In Zichron Yaakov, a town in Israel north of Tel Aviv, Jewish residents often sell their chametz to Christian neighbors. After one sale, a buyer joked with Rabbi Yair Silverman, a founder of the Moed community, that he might actually keep the food this year if he is running short on supplies. “That’s great,” Rabbi Silverman said. “Then it’s a real sale.”
This year, Chabad.org has seen an increase in people using its online platform to sell their chametz, to an estimated 250,000 sales from about 90,000 in 2019. Normally, this transaction is often carried out in person because it’s “contractual,” like closing a house, said Rabbi Eitan Rubin, of Great Neck, N.Y.
“Chametz” consists of just five grains — wheat, spelt, barley, oats and rye — but in practice, the list of foods to avoid is often longer. Many Ashkenazi Jews, whose ancestors came from Europe, also do not eat “kitniyot,” which includes most legumes, corn and rice.
“We always followed the Ashkenazi tradition,” said Rachel Ringler, 64, a food writer and challah-baking instructor, who will be hosting her Seder over Zoom from Bridgehampton, N.Y., instead of with 30 people in her Manhattan apartment. “We never had rice. We never had lentils. We never even served string beans.”
But she has a son-in-law who is half-Syrian, so she follows different Passover customs.
“I said, ‘We are all Syrian this year,’ ” she said, laughing. “We are stocked with lentils, and so we are going to use those lentils for Passover.”
The Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis, has sanctioned eating kitniyot during Passover since 2015. The custom is widespread among Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews with ancestors from Spain, North Africa and the Middle East. In Israel, many follow suit.
This year, the assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards also offered alternatives for traditional foods on a Seder plate: a roasted beet and rice in place of a shank bone and egg, and any vegetable or fruit “that can bring a tear to the eye” if horseradish isn’t available.
The substitutions won’t be the only thing different on the first night of Passover, which is usually celebrated with a large communal meal with family and friends. Some families who cannot be in the same house plan to cook from the same recipes, as if they were together.
Self-isolating in various homes across the country, some observant Jews might need to embrace technology — normally a no-no — so they can celebrate together. (In Israel, which tightened travel restrictions specifically around the holiday, some are gathering before sundown to celebrate together via Skype or Zoom.)
“We’ve seen rabbis across the board — but especially in the Orthodox community — lowering the bar for Passover,” said Mishael Zion, an Orthodox rabbi who with his father, Noam, wrote “A Night to Remember,” the popular modern version of the Haggadah, the text that guides the Seder. This year, he said, “it’s like the matzo, which is just the basics of bread, water and flour.”
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