This 88-year-old rabbi just said it's cool to smoke pot on Passover


An 88-year-old rabbi named Chaim Kanievsky, considered the top living ultra-Orthodox authority on Jewish religious law, ruled that it is kosher for Jews to use marijuana strictly for medicinal purposes on Passover.
In a video of his decision, two other men explain to Kanievsky that the marijuana leaves have a "medicinal smell." He stipulates that the plant be blessed, and one of the men complies, saying, "Praised are you, Adonai our G-d, Sovereign of the Universe, who creates fragrant plants. Amen!"
Kanievsky is not the only rabbi to come to this conclusion. Three years ago, Orthodox Rabbi Efraim Zalmanovich similarly determined that medicinal use and distribution of marijuana is acceptable for Jews, but recreational use is not permitted.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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