Pot For Passover? Top Rabbi Declares Marijuana Kosher Ahead Of Jewish Festival
Published on 4/23/16
Are you participating in the Jewish holiday of Passover this week? Have no fear, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky says marijuana is kosher in the medical context. While some rabbis have condemned the drug in the past, times are changing, and after Rabbi Kanievsky smelled the cannabis leaves, he deemed them kosher. There are about 11,000 marijuana smokers in Israel and it seems as long as a substance is used to benefit an illness, it is kosher.
"Anything that can be demonstrated to reduce suffering, especially of a bodily illness, or one of the mind, would be more or less kosher," Ajay Chaudhary, a Columbia University religious studies expert, told VICE last year. "Well, I mean 'kosher' in the colloquial sense, in this case ... If it's going to save a life, or even alleviate suffering, or you're dying of starvation, even a ham sandwich on Yom Kippur is OK."
