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Mar 28, 2007

will talmidim of Rav Bar Hayyim be smoking marijuana this Pesah?

As we have all been following the story, Rav David Bar Hayyim of Machon Shilo published his psak which is now famous after burning up the wires around the internet.

He paskened that the "minhag" to not eat kitniyot on pesah is not relevant in Eretz Yisrael.

According to the latest press release by the Green Leaf Party (political party in Israel supporting legalization of marijuana), marijuana, which contains hemp seed, falls under the category of kitniyot and therefore is forbidden Pesah.

Last time I checked, kitniyot is only forbidden to be eaten (by those of us who adhere to the kitniyot decree), not to be enjoyed in other manners. There is definitely no need to remove kitniyot from your house.

Also, I was unaware that hemp was included in the original ban of kitniyot, but maybe it has been added in more recent years, such as was done with peanuts.

The good news is that students of Rav Bar Hayyim can feel free to smoke marijuana this Pesah.

NOTE: According to Israeli law it is illegal to have marijuana in your possession.

NOTE: It has come to my attention that some people might have taken this post as being a serious one and a crticism of Rav Bar Hayyim and his students. I would like to make it clear that this post was humorous in nature. In no way did I intend to disparage Rav Bar Hayyim and/or his followers. In no way did I intend to indicate that he or his followers would be inclined as to smoke marijuana. It was simply a humorous post putting together two separate psakim that were not at all related to each other. It was meant to be humorous in nature and should not be taken as anything mroe than that.

12 comments:

  1. Must... not... make... joke... about... tenses....

    In all seriousness, kitniyos are not assur behanaah, even for those who follow Ashkenazic minhagim. Of course, putting it into your mouth may be a problem of achilah... perhaps a water pipe can prevent this?

    Oh, and marijuana is probably assur all year round.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you say it is probably assur all year round because it is assur to smoke regular cigarettes all year round?

    ReplyDelete
  3. No, I'd say it's assur all year round, regardless of any connection to regular cigarettes. Very few people smoke enough marijuana to seriously affect the risk of lung cancer etc., but the potential for other damage is still present.

    Additionally, I doubt that the mental states induced by marijuana (or any drug, or alcohol outside of a halachic framework) can really be considered appropriate for a Jew. Cf. Kol Bo (IIRC) on whether being drunk is halachically permissable

    ReplyDelete
  4. RAFI - This issue actually got coverage in todays Chicago Sun-Times. My goyish employees pointed it out to me!

    mike - wherever pot is illegal, then halachically it is assur under dina....(I asked a rov). B/c there are no conflicting torah points on pot, dina di....comes into play.

    While I don't can't smoke b/c of my asthma, I know quite a few people who would only be better behaved with a toke now and then!

    ReplyDelete
  5. wherever pot is illegal, then halachically it is assur under dina....(I asked a rov).

    Agreed.

    I'm not sure if possession of small amounts is actually illegal in as many places as people think... often times, the laws are against distribution (or possession with intent to distribute). In such a case, once someone already sinned by violating the law to buy (if the law is against buying and not just selling), consumption probably would not entail any additional (secular) legal violations.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Shaya,
    Not so, pot can be very strongle argued as a medical purpose, and this would bypass dina d'malchuta falling under sakanas nefashos..

    ReplyDelete
  7. I was referring to recreational use. Legal medicinal is not a question. If the govt cosiders it illegal, even for medicinal, then one should ask a shailoh. On a simple level, where the case is choleh she'ain bo sakana, the rule applies of illegality.

    But, just for the record, even though I cannot participate, I am all for pot becoming legal.

    ReplyDelete
  8. shaya,

    you can participate.

    I would be happy to make brownies or chocolates for you. Smoking is merely the easiest and therefore the most common method of enjoying pot.

    ReplyDelete
  9. B"H I find your title to be utterly...not funny...

    That being said, I wonder if Shaya's "rov" knows that the inyan of dina malchuth dina, covers the issue of tax collection in hutz laAretz in the Talmud Bavli. (Of course it's not even mentioned in the Yerushalmi, as the dina in Eress Yisael is [supposed to be] Torah law.)

    ReplyDelete
  10. ben-yehuda - a sense of humor and the ability to laugh at yourself always helps, according to my findings..
    and I do not understand your issue about tax collection - what are you referring to?

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm upset that the MJ "psak" made it to Fox News and CBS News but we didn't. At least on Ynet the large on our psak got nearly twice as many responses as the one on MJ.

    www.machonshilo.org got over 200,000 hits this month, with in excess of 100,000 hits during the last week. Daily traffic peaked at over 25,000 hits on Thursday.

    In addition, the ruling got coverage on Arutz-7 and on Y-net, the website of the leading Israel newspaper. There were more than 200 talkbacks to the Y-net article and it was picked up separately by two leading Israeli radio talkshow hosts, Avri Gilad and Jacky Levy.

    Chag sameach to everyone and may your matzot be soft.
    ;-)

    P.S. We did not publish the choveret about 2nd day of chag being ba'al tosif, but we like the initiative.

    ReplyDelete
  12. B"H There is a gross misconception of the inyan of dina malchuth dina. The inyan comes from being hayav to taxes in hutz le"Aretz. Nothing else, yet has blown up into one giant excuse for cow-towing to the goyim, by applying it inappropriately to any and all laws out of Israel.

    Regarding a "sense of humor," I will respond privately...your blog, your rules, your busines....

    ReplyDelete

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