Yes. Kosher-for-Passover cakes don't fall under the rules of leavening (chametz) in Jewish law.

Sometimes they're made with potato flour. (Yuck.)

Sometimes they're made with matza meal, which means very finely ground pieces of matza. The idea is that once flour has been wet and baked into matza, further contact with water won't leaven it. Some Jews don't accept this "wet matza" rule, but the majority do.

If someone made kosher-for-Passover cakes that were hard to distinguish from regular, year-round leavened cakes, then you might have a point, and perhaps they would be forbidden. But I don't think that anyone is ever going to make that claim. So given that they're different from year-round cakes, and given that they're not leavened anyway according to Jewish law, they're considered acceptable.

Pro tip: Ice cream on kosher-for-Passover cakes makes them far more palatable.

Yup, I know the Kosher-for-Passover cakes don't fall under the strictly defined rules of leavening, that's why they're officially Kosher as certified by a Rabbi.

But for all intents and purposes, again in just my common-person's view, they're effectively leavened. Just like normal breads and cakes, they're fluffy and squishy with tons of tiny air pockets created during the baking process. To me that means leavened.

<off-topic> : Another one of my confusions (as a Reform jew) is the Shabbat restriction of not doing work by making a spark. Okay, so one is supposed to avoid work on the Day of Rest by walking a mile to synagogue instead of driving 5 minutes in a car. Or walking up 10 flights of stairs to their apartment instead of getting in an elevator.

To me it would be more consistent to agree to re-interpret instead what it means to 'make a spark' as per the state of technology in the biblical times. Ie doing it with sticks or flint & steel can be considered work, vs the passive closing of an electrical circuit.

Jeff: They might be effectively leavened, but that's the whole point of a legal system, and of scholars to interpret it. What looks to you (or me) as a layperson like the same thing might not be the same at all. In this case, the technical definition trumps what might seem like leavening to you, because of debates and decisions that rabbis had about 2,000 years ago.

Of course, you can decide not to eat such kosher-for-Passover products. I do know some people who refuse to eat things that look like the year-round versions, because they feel like it's too close to the "real" thing."

As for sparks and electricity, the legal reasoning has nothing to do with "work." It has to do with "melacha," which is often poorly translated as "work," but has absolutely nothing to do with physical exertion. Rather, it has to do with creation, destruction, or just changing the nature of the world.

For 2,000 years, Jews have avoided anything having to do with light or fire on Shabbat. Electricity posed a bit of a problem -- here was a way of lighting and heating that was previously unknown, and which didn't fit previous legal categories. Should it be allowed or not? There were debates over this, and many Conservative rabbis argue that it's totally OK to use electricity on Shabbat.

I grew up in a home that used electricity on Shabbat, and I slowly came to the conclusion that even if it's permitted to use electricity, my Shabbat is radically enhanced by not doing so. Not using the computer, not using the phone, not watching TV -- these make my experience better and special, rather than worse.

Is that sometimes a pain? Yes, it is. But I have found that the trade-off is more than worthwhile.

Moreover, as I wrote in a previous comment, much of Jewish law is a forcing function toward community involvement. By forbidding people to drive on Shabbat, you increase the chances of having a culture of home hospitality and spending time with friends -- something is nearly universal among people who don't drive on Shabbat, and something which is almost completely non-existent among those who do.

Even if you could argue that driving a car is OK on Shabbat (and there are very few ways to justify that; remember that it's also forbidden to drive a horse or ride a bicycle), the social ramifications that I've seen are almost entirely detrimental to the community. Non-driving communities tend to be much closer knit than those in which people do drive.

So, why not do these things? Because it changes the way in which the day operates -- for you, for your family, and for your community. This doesn't mean that it's meaningful or appropriate for everyone, I'll admit.

Thanks for the detailed reply reuven. Very interesting to see your perspectives, and clarification.

It's not really fair to have this discussion on Shabbos/Sabbath when the people who really know are unplugged from the internet.

Um, I really know (or at least I think that I know). I don't use a computer on the Sabbath. But I live in Israel, where it ended on Saturday evening, Israel time. And I was foolish/addicted enough to check HN after Shabbat ended.

I did, however, think that it was pretty funny that American Jews who know and can weigh in on the subject were unable to participate in much of the discussion!