ational marijuana use is found in this week’s Torah por-
tion Kedoshim, which opens with “You shall be holy.”
According to Rabbi Yonah Gross, Keystone K
kashrus administrator and rabbi at Wynnewood syn-
agogue Congregation Beth Hamedrosh, recreational
marijuana as a form of escapism prevents awareness
to fulfi ll mitzvot.

“One of those principles that the Torah gives us is
to make sure that you live a life of holiness, and one
then has to ask themselves, does this activity then cor-
respond with living that life of holiness?” Gross said.

Even without the spiritual implications of substance
use, rabbis considered the physical ones: Because the
Torah commands the preservation of
life, the potentially dangerous practice
of recreational substance use is for-
bidden. (On the contrary, medicinal
marijuana use is permissible because
it would allow physical relief from
pain and therefore make one more
physically and spiritually capable of
fulfi lling commandments.)
But the argument dismissing mari-
juana use because it is a mind-altering
substance is a slippery one, rabbis
admit. In Jewish spaces, alcohol use is
oft en not only acceptable but encour-
aged. On Passover, many Jews drink
four cups of wine at their seder; on
Purim, some fulfi ll the tradition of drinking until
they cannot discern between Haman and Mordechai,
yet rabbis do not unanimously condemn drinking.

While Gross, who does not condone excessive drink-
ing on holidays or otherwise, argues that some drink-
ing can be sanctioned, as it is usually done in a social
setting and diff erentiates between the chemical eff ects
alcohol versus marijuana has on the brain, Grossman
believes that the role of alcohol is more acceptable,
partially because it is more deeply entrenched and
traditional in Jewish spaces.

Th e acceptability of marijuana among Jews appears
to have a generational and denominational divide,
2021 Tribe12 fellow and medicinal marijuana advo-
cate Gabrielle Schwartz believes.

Schwartz, who does content marketing for a can-
nabis-related television network, grew up in a Reform
community; she fi rst used marijuana as a young teen-
ager under the supervision of her mother, which wasn’t
uncommon among her family’s group of friends.

“Nobody that I knew really had this negative con-
notation towards it, so I never really had a negative
connotation towards it,” Schwartz said.

more of what we want to do. We’re not really neces-
sarily following tradition down to a ‘T’”, Schwartz
said. “We’re just following certain traditions that
make us feel comfortable, and then we just take it
from there.”
For larger Jewish authorities, Schwartz said, chang-
ing minds on marijuana use will be much slower,
but Grossman maintains that the Orthodox stance
on recreational marijuana could very well change,
though likely not anytime soon.

One hundred years ago, Orthodox rabbis con-
doned tobacco use, only putting restrictions on
its use during holidays, when lighting a fi re is not
permissible; rabbis only began to
change their tune on smoking in
the 1970s, when more information
was released on the harms of the
behavior. Th e allowance of greater educational
opportunities for women emerged in
Orthodox spaces as the broader soci-
ety prioritized women’s rights.

“It’s not necessarily that the word
of God is not permanent,” Grossman
said. “It’s that the word of God has
to be applied diff erently in changing
circumstances.” But recreational marijuana is
slightly diff erent than these issues,
Grossman said, because the same urgency to make
changes isn’t there. Th ough marijuana has taken cen-
ter stage on a national level in recent years, rabbis just
don’t believe the issue is large enough in the Jewish
community to alter their stance.

“It’s very diffi cult to know whether this is going to
be one of those things that we’ll look back on in 50
years and try to understand why we were so adamant
that this was going to be a hill that we choose to die
on,” Grossman said. JE
Courtesy of Alliance Israelite Universelle via YIVO Library
Though marijuana has taken
center stage on a national level
in recent years, rabbis just don’t
believe the issue is large enough
in the Jewish community to alter
their stance.

Schwartz’s Reform peers share her beliefs, and
among other denominations, opinions on recre-
ational marijuana use diff er, just as opinions on Jews
getting piercings and tattoos may diff er.

For Schwartz, the growing acceptability of recre-
ational marijuana use among younger Jews is refl ec-
tive of a growing pattern of adapting the religion to
one’s own personal and political values, as well to as
the changing social climate.

“As our generation is getting older, we’re doing
Altars from a c. third century BCE synagogue in Tel
Arad contain burned cannabis and frankincense
residue. YIVO’s “Am Yisrael High” exhibit poster by Steve
Marcus A seder plate from Tokin Jew
A fragment from Cairo Geniza (c. 1200-1300)
requesting the purchase of hashish
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