How kosher is D.C.’s kosher food truck?

David Weinberg had planned to be first in line to buy a nice corned beef sandwich from the kosher food truck that opened Friday in Washington. The Web consultant has long lamented the lack of kosher cooking downtown and, as a foodie, was thrilled to hear that “Top Chef” contestant Spike Mendelsohn would have a hand in the deli on wheels.

But when a block-long line formed at the truck in its first hour, Weinberg was not in it. He had called the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Washington, the area’s main certifier of Jewish restaurant kitchens, to ask whether it was all right to patronize Sixth & Rye, the mobile eatery launched by the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.

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( Ricky Carioti / WASHINGTON POST ) - Co-workers Toby Friesen and Salem Pearce enjoy their corned beef sandwiches from the Sixth & Rye food truck in Washington.

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“Unfortunately, they said no,” said Weinberg, 29. “I’m always excited to have a new kosher restaurant open up, and food trucks are just this awesome local food thing that is happening. But I assumed, wrongly, that it would be under the Vaad. Until it is, I can’t eat there.”

Perhaps it was inevitable when a hipster food trend crossed paths with 3,000 years of dietary tradition, but the debut of a van dispensing nouvelle slaw and high-end challah has caused a debate worthy of Talmudic scholars: Is the kosher food truck kosher?

For now, the silver panel van will not bear the blue and black “K” that would mark it approved by the Washington Vaad. The group supervises more than a dozen kosher restaurants in the region, including the cafeteria at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. But after several months of negotiations, the Vaad declined to certify the truck as kosher, according to the synagogue.

“The food is all completely kosher, but it seemed to come down to the ownership of the truck,” said Sixth & I director Esther Safran Foer. “We rent the truck from somebody who is not Jewish,” who will use it to serve non-kosher food the rest of the week. The Vaad was “concerned that he not be in the truck while we are serving. But he has to be. He owns the truck and holds the license.”

A spokesman for the Vaad wouldn’t speak about the group’s reasons for withholding approval.

“Unfortunately, despite our putting significant effort into the project, it ultimately did not meet the standards of the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington,” which oversees the Vaad, said Rabbi Binyamin Sanders, who runs the kosher certification program for the council.

But interpretation of kosher law is often in the rye of the beholder. Other scholars had no problem with the truck’s ownership and staffing. The synagogue found an orthodox rabbi in Baltimore to sign off.

“I have a lot of respect for the Vaad, and we hope to work with them in the future, but we had to get rolling,” Foer said as she looked at the line of several dozen waiting to order. “And we are!”

The truck served more than 350 orders in two hours.

Whose stamp to trust

For most of the inaugural diners noshing along the curb, the lack of a local kosher seal of approval was less important than the texture of the rye and the crunch of the home-fried potato chips. Even the Jewish customers seemed unconcerned by the dispute.