Is Marijuana Kosher for Passover?

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 10:20:17 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)

Share This: Digg!

For those of you who were wondering whether it's okay to smoke pot during Passover, the answer seems to be "no."

Every Sunday school student knows Pessah for its ban on food that rises, but a growing number of Jews are asking whether the holiday also precludes them from getting high.

....Following an inquiry by the Post, a spokeswoman for the party said the [Green Leaf Party] was sending out an e-mail to members warning them about hemp's possible kashrut problems.

"We are warning our people not to eat anything with hemp products if they follow the practice of kitniyot on Pessah," said party spokeswoman Michelle Levine. "We are considering announcing a ban on everything containing hemp just to be on the safe side. We are going with the rabbis on this. People should remove all cannabis and hemp from their homes."

Levine said one of the party's main arguments for cannabis legalization was biblical references to it.

Biblical references to pot?

< Tom Tancredo to Announce Presidential Bid on Right Wing Radio | Guantanamo: David Hicks Sentenced to Nine Months >

Legal

Nothing on this site should be construed as legal advice. TalkLeft does not give legal advice.

TalkLeft is not responsible for and often disagrees with material posted in the comments section. Read at your own risk.

Is Marijuana Kosher for Passover? | 17 comments (17 topical)

Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

Passover (none / 0) (#1)
by squeaky on Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 10:33:05 PM EST

A leavened brain?

The good news and the bad news.... (none / 0) (#2)
by jerry on Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 11:28:07 PM EST

As someone in the article says, the good news is that if it is not kosher for Passover, it must be kosher the rest of the year.

The bad news is that no one seems to explain what makes an herb not kosher.

It turns out that smoking tobacco is considered to be kosher, so why not smoking marijuana?

My belief is that article is confused and they were not talking about smoking marijuana but about baking it into brownies that contain flour. That would not be kosher.

My suspicion then is that marijuana macaroons are kosher for passover.

(Bleh, I really dislike macaroons.) (and I don't do drugs either, so this is all just fun speculation.)

i had no clue (none / 0) (#3)
by cpinva on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 12:25:41 AM EST

there were any references to pot in the bible, at all. could someone please provide those cites?

unless you're using it as an ingredient in leavened bread, i'm not sure why it wouldn't be kosher.

: Depends on whose interpretation.... (none / 0) (#5)
by kdog on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 08:28:53 AM EST

the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church seems to think the bible is chock full of reefer references.
These bible study folks say different.
I remember an article in High Times years ago with a theory that the annointing oils used by Jesus contained hash oil...it said the healing powers attributed to Jesus could be explained by the high hash conent of the annointing oils....he wasn't healing, he was medicating.
Anyway, my feeling is that since its all natural, how could it not be kosher?

this whole "in the Bible" thing (none / 0) (#4)
by scribe on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 08:09:06 AM EST

could make for some entertaining twists for Rethugs trying to appeal to the fundies.

I wonder what Monica Goodling and her Regent U Law School buddies (like, say, Professor Ashcroft) would have to say if they knew pot was in the Bible.

Shrooms (none / 0) (#6)
by squeaky on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 09:20:20 AM EST

There are some Hassidic Jews who believe that the ancient Rabbis ate a small amount of mushroom on a regular basis, even daily, to become closer to god.

A surprising amount of these ultra orthodox jews trip today based on references in the bible.

Miracles anyone?

The Bracha for the sacred herb is to be found in many places on the site, the text is as follows:
Blessed are you, YHWH our "god", lifeforce of the mutiverse, who has sanctified us with hir commandments, and has commanded us to burn the herbs of intoxication.
As with all Tefillot and Brachot, the text is not set in stone; feel free to modify it however you feel fit.
Psilocybin mushrooms, being a fungus, do have the Bracha of Shehakol; if it is known that the mushrooms being ingested grew on cow feces, on may also say a Bracha of Borei Pri Hatechorim. Additionally, it is customary to recite the Tefillat Haderech (prayer for a jouney) when one ingests a hallucinogenic; the prayer is generally recited when one begins to feel the effects.
Since the recommended dosage is less than a Kazayit, a Bracha Acharona is not recited.

So that's their excuse? (none / 0) (#12)
by bx58 on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 09:22:41 PM EST

Running into me and my kids with the wagons in the supermarket and wearing those nutty hats on the side of 17B...

We need to talk.


Hardly (none / 0) (#13)
by squeaky on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 10:02:52 PM EST

The folks that are into mushrooms and weed are pretty hip, and much more friendly than the ones bumping into you in the supermarket. I can not imagine my friends being so awkward and so unaware that they would tend to bump other people with their shopping cart or be rude.

My friends are from the Lubavich sect. Their membership is open to all jews. Other sects are closed to outsiders, jewish or not.


Squeaky (none / 0) (#14)
by bx58 on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 10:22:47 PM EST

I have a summer house in Sullivan County, NY. Some of these folks won't put the change in your hand after you buy something in their store.

The reason they run into you in the supermarket is because it's easier than talking to you, like "excuse me."

If they're on the shrooms and weed I can understand it. I guess.


Stereotyping? (none / 0) (#15)
by squeaky on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 11:04:17 PM EST

Some of these folks won't put the change in your hand after you buy something in their store.

Some of these folks???

Well some of the folks, in fact it seems most of the folks in the White House are not only stealing, cheating and lying, but they are killing and encouraging killing for profit on a massive scale.

There are always some everywhere who will cheat you. Your using a few in your upstate vacation area to generalize about a whole group is questionable at best. Next you will be suggesting that they partake in blood rituals. Talking like that makes it sound like you have a nasty predujice going. Do you feel that all jews are like the Hasids you describe?

As I said earlier I doubt that they are on mind altering drugs, although I do get it that you do not like the Hasids where you shop.

They probably do not like you either. So what?


So what? (none / 0) (#17)
by bx58 on Sun Apr 01, 2007 at 08:03:47 PM EST

If you don't like me that doesn't mean you can treat me like a second class citizen, which is what of a lot of Hasidic Jews seem to do.

I've met plenty of good=hearted Hasidic Jews and I'm sure there are many more out there but some of them just don't care for us goys.

Why wouldn't somebody put coins in my bare hand? Why would someone run into my back instead of speaking to me? You tell me.


: Not my experience (none / 0) (#18)
by squeaky on Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 01:46:15 AM EST

The most unfriendly folks I have encountered have been rednecks, and pushy super rich self entitled folk, and I do not think that they are too many jews in those category.
Most of the hasids I have met have been friendly, but as I said they are Lubavich. I have not had much contact with the other sects.
Anyway it is always a mistake to stereotype, as hard as that may be. I always try to keep an open mind even with rednecks and super rich white people.

What a bunch of BS! (none / 0) (#7)
by Che's Lounge on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 09:20:40 AM EST

This is a joke, right?

Holy Chocolate Jesus!

Reason #87 why I'm an agnostic.

See, Exodus 30:22-33 (none / 0) (#8)
by jackl2400 on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 09:30:19 AM EST

and Genesis 1:11,29.

The Exodus passage discusses the preparation of the priestly meeting tent for Holy Days, from what the Lord spoke to Moses. The passage contains the formula for the holy annointing oil, which was topically applied to the heads of priests and other holy men, such as, ultimately Jesus Christ ("Messiah" means "the annointed one").

The formula for the annointing oil, which was to be prepared in a perfumer's cauldron (like an old fasioned two-part coffee percolator), where the six quarts of olive oil called for in the recipe was boiled and dripped through some herbs: myrrh, "fragrant cinnamon" and "aromatic cane" ("kaneh bosm", "kaneh" Hebrew meaning "cane" or "reed", "bosm" meaning "fragrant" or "sweet-smelling").

Kaneh bosm is thought by many to be cannabis. It makes sense in the context of the recipe, and its effect to produce a highly psychoactive ointment and incense smoke (which was also burned in the tent).

Remember the Exodus story, or the Ten Commandments movie? God spoke from "a burning bush". God's voice came to Moses "from a cloud". The "tree of life"?

The Genesis portion, the first page of the Bible and the seven day creation story involves G-D creating seed-bearing herbs, giving them to man for his use, and pronoucing them as good.

Wink wink. Get it. Think this theory's totally crazy? Or just don't really read your Bibles with an open eye, to irony at least.

Further reading: Bennett & McQueen, Sex, Drugs, Violence and The Bible.

I'm glad I'm not Jewish n/t (none / 0) (#9)
by Repack Rider on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 10:24:20 AM EST

On the other hand (none / 0) (#10)
by weezie on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 11:22:11 AM EST

What about the "grass" in Easter baskets? Can we smoke that?

MJ... (none / 0) (#11)
by desertswine on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 03:51:17 PM EST

goes well with fish or fowl.