The Grass Debate

March 28, 2007 - 3:00 PM by

Talk is making the rounds regarding the Kosher for Passover-ness of marijuana. No that wasn’t a typo. People are seriously questioning Kosher law when it comes to smoking up (or not) over the holiday.

We know the “guys with the guns and billy clubs” law says no. But what of the Jewish dietary “eat/smoke this and you’re in trouble” law?

This Jerusalem Post article opened it up for debate, bloggers are posting their thoughts and ABC News has picked it up.

According to the JPost story, rabbis polled were somewhat waffly but leaned towards a no-smoke policy.

Israel’s Green Leaf Party took a stronger stance:

“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.”

And what of the personal toll?

Hemp’s tricky Pessah status has caused the first marital rift for Daniel and Sarah, who recently moved to Jerusalem from Chicago. The newlyweds, who asked not to use their last name, said they had just finished their Pessah cleaning when a friend asked them if he could buy the rest of their marijuana.

“We just had no idea what he meant. It turns out he was buying it from a lot of his observant friends so that they wouldn’t have it in the house, [like] hametz,” said Sarah. “We aren’t habitual users, but we certainly smoke in our house, and we really aren’t sure what our pipe may have come in contact with. It has caused a big crisis for us.”

That’s a lotta talk over a little green.

Tags: • Category: Holidays, Life, Pop Culture 

Comments

2 Comments on The Grass Debate

  1. Michelle Levine on Sun, Jun 24th 2007 11:29 PM

    2. I’ve already been published through Israel21c for environmental issues, by the way. Kashrut.com replied to me personally and explained why grass is indeed, kitniot, though I was wrong about needing to remove kitniot from the house. I can give you the reference, if you’re interested. More interesting, in my opinion, is my Reuters interview which also features Rabbi Yona Metzger, about whether cannabis is kosher the rest of the year:

    http://www.reuters.com/news/video/videoStory?videoId=47211

  2. Anndrea on Mon, Nov 10th 2008 9:28 PM

    3. Hi-

    Can you please explain why you are suggesting that all hemp be removed from homes. The hemp we sell is Certified Kosher.

    Please help me understand.

    Anndrea

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