Rabbis Green-Light Weed for Passover(!)

As we come into Passover, which starts tonight and runs through April 11, our nation’s sizable Jewish population will be shedding anything made with grains, thus ruling out beer and most spirits. That means if you’re one of the faithful with a heavy thirst for the tipple, it’s wine headaches all week long. There is, however, one way they can kick back and unwind before digging into some matzo: by getting high.

Ben Greenberg is a New York City-based rabbi who has the distinction—and added authority—of having been the head of a Denver-based synagogue while the state was passing, and enacting, the law that famously legalized marijuana.

“There are really two different layers of prohibitions during Passover,” Greenberg explained by phone. “One of them is specific to the Ashkenazic Jewish community, and the other one is the biblical prohibition, which is that you can’t have any leaven—no grains. The additional layer of prohibition is that European Jews, several hundred years ago, added that you can’t have anything that might look like a grain. So they don’t eat beans or rice on Passover.”

Uh-oh. So does this mean that the sticky buds of the cannabis plant fall under this category?

“The overwhelming majority of rabbis are clear that it does not,” Greenberg noted, sagely.

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