Orthodox visitors opting out of second seder

In the area of Cleveland where Menachem Hecht used to live, two Modern Orthodox synagogues are located right next to each other. The rabbi of one synagogue ruled that people who don't intend to move to Israel must observe two days of Yom Tov (religious holiday), even when they are spending the holiday there. The other rabbi allows his congregants to keep just one day when they are in Israel.

"I follow the rabbi who said it's okay to keep just one day," laughed Hecht, 27, who now lives in New York and this week arrived in Jerusalem to spend Passover here. "There are a couple of serious reasons why I chose to go with the more lenient position," he added, explaining that a while ago he invested in a piece of property in Israel and that he plans to move here in the "near" but still undetermined future.

Hecht is not alone. An increasing number of Modern Orthodox Jews in the Diaspora seek - and receive - their rabbis' permission to observe just one day, even without contemplating immigration. "There has been a big shift," said Hecht, who teaches at the Frisch High School in New Jersey. "When I studied in a yeshiva in Israel, some ten years ago, all my American friends kept two days. Nowadays, most of the Modern Orthodox kids I teach only observe one day when they're in Israel. The one-day phenomenon has definitely taken root."

"I was told nobody really does the second day in Israel," said Philadelphia resident Shelly Verlin, 48, who spent the first part of the holiday in Tel Aviv. While she intends to keep two days at the end of Passover - when she'll be back in the U.S. - she only observed one day at the beginning. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," she said.

Those who insist on keeping two days are overwhelmingly from ultra-Orthodox circles, according to noted American-Jewish sociologist Chaim Waxman, who recently moved to Israel. "Today, more and more [modern Orthodox] rabbis say it's okay to hold just one day," he said. "It's becoming so natural."

Currently, most halachic authorities rule that visitors who intend to leave Israel after the holiday are obligated to keep two days, said Rabbi Shalom Rosner, who last year moved from New York to Beit Shemesh. But Waxman, the sociologist, said the answer to the question depends on whom you ask. "Rabbis in the Diaspora are more likely to say people should keep two days; Israeli rabbis tend to say one day is okay."

Telfed's Dorron Kline attributes the rise of this question to the ease with which people can travel to Israel. "It will take a few years until a clear majority view emerges," said Kline. "In addition, there are more students on one-year programs, who consider themselves residents of Israel. All these people observe one day in a recognized halachic framework, and this in itself has a ripple effect."

Rabbi Avi Berman, director-general at the Orthodox Union's Israel branch - which is not known for religious leniency - said that both practices are valid and that everyone should consult their local rabbi. Rabbi Jeremy Rosen, a modern Orthodox thinker who lives in New York but frequently comes to Jerusalem, told Anglo File that "individuals should make their own decisions and stand by their honest conclusion."

Rosen personally sides with those who insist on two days. "The Talmud says the second day is only minhag [customary], but minhag remains obligatory," the Manchester-born rabbi told Anglo File. "My theory, and I have no textual support, is that they decided in Talmudic times to keep the second day in the Diaspora as a sort of fine for not coming to Israel - so if you find the second day too much, just make aliyah!".