Cannabis and Marijuana | Rabbi Anthony Manning

I'd like to thank our sponsors for 2025 the Shira sponsored leish bras branded and zelik Ben cman we're very very grateful for that ongoing sponsorship okay let's talk about this topic we've never discussed this topic before um some of the it's a long Source sheet and actually the sources I really want to focus on are from page eight onwards so I I will start at the beginning you don't have to flick there just yet but um we have spoken before about this these first few sources but it was a long time ago when we talked about vaccination and many you may may remember the covid epidemic you may have tried to put it out of your head um but we talked a lot in the early days about vaccination when Israel was early in adopting vaccination and there was a something of a debate halachically as well but I'd like to review some of those sources they're they're very important sources and they apply very much to this topic too the main chores we'll see is a CH ra MOSI Feinstein which we've not looked at before together which we'll see detailed and that was one of a group of Chas in 1973 so let's make a start with this I want to look today the issue of cannabis and marijuana they really are the same thing um we'll talk a little bit about why they have two different names um and the halakic angle on this from a perspective both of medical use uh which is not really a Shila um but also from recreational use and and I put put some uh statistics here a little bit at the beginning about smoking Israel still has a pretty high smoking tobacco smoking rate but in terms of cannabis is pretty much off the charts um before March 2017 recreational cannabis use was illegal in Israel and in theory people could be charged uh with u offense and pay heavy fines or imprisonment although in practice it was almost never done a survey in 2017 in Israel even when it was illegal technically speaking to smoke cannabis recreationally um saw that revealed that 27 % of Israelis between 18 and 65 had uh consumed cannabis in somewhere in the previous year and which was the highest rate in the whole world interestingly uh the next was uh I put here Iceland at 18% I don't know what happens in Iceland probably not very much um but uh I don't know why they need to calm down in Iceland but maybe they do and then uh the US 16% but you see that Israel is leading that statistic and it's not necessarily a good thing from 2018 pharmacies were allowed to sell cannabis um for medical use under a special pilot program and then in 2019 cannabis was decriminalized in Israel for everyone from the age of 18 uh and over when it's used in private um and uh this has now become a very widespread thing um I I don't know about you but depending on how many teenagers are in town on shabas and M shabas I can smell different things going around different neighborhoods when you walk around yam um medal medical cannabis for sure is very widespread now uh and there are I put here 137,000 licensed medical cannabis patients in 2024 and and roughly 3,000 in Israel it's a small country get added every single month in the US uh 24 States plus DC and a couple of other territories now have legalized recreational cannabis and 38 states have have legalized medical cannabis so we we'll have a look at this today there are some interesting sources that come up uh we'll see how they apply and uh and uh how they may be I excuse me dependent on the medical assessment here at the beginning I'd like to share something a little bit fun I'm not sure that I really find it very compelling but there are those who really want to say that cannabis is right there in the psim uh in uh in in sa Asmat coming up in a few weeks and they point to the par number one here where they're putting together the spices to make the ano oil and God says a lot of people read this in the corbon get take for yourself these these herbs and of course and samim is the same you know basic word m there's a certain Five May of that konos kinon obviously is related to Cinnamon sweet smelling or scented cinnamon okay okay so half of that previous amount what is this isos related in any way linguistically philologically to cannabis canos or cannabis so the answer is probably not um but I brought you at the bottom ra arier Kaplan who uh is has a special focus on these things with pictures he talks about what cinnamon is kinamon and then he talks about Kos which he Associates with other things but he does say at the end there there are some who uh you know associate this based on the septu again and other readings with the English Greek cannabis Etc the hemp plant which we're going to talk about soon but there is a suggestion there rashy in the top of page number two just says Kos just means any sticks that have scent as opposed to sticks that don't have scent and it's got nothing to do with cannabis directly um later on in yahu for example rebukes the people and says God's saying to them you didn't spend money to buy this Kan you meant to be using this Kan this Kan bosam which we had in the temple you didn't bother you didn't bother you didn't make the effort and the redak says the reason is and this is why we're interesting it today in number four can this can which yesah is criticizing the people they didn't bother to go and buy for the temple this isus which was in the incense why does it say you didn't buy this special spice because this is not indigenous says the redactor it was only available on the spice trade you had to pick it up from a long way away it came to them from away the disagrees I don't know where whether cannabis was ever indigenous to Israel I don't think it was uh it's certainly very uh broadly grown today and as I said it's probably not the canib bosam that we're talking about anyway anyway the rambam interestingly says in number six in the Halas these are Halas we don't get a chance to review with each other very much the Halas of putting together the clay mikdash the Bas of mikdash so of course he goes through all the different spices that you need to make the all right and he says in number six what is it's very thin sticks almost like straw like a red Crimson kind of straw which again doesn't sound particularly like the cannabis plant and it comes from India it's on the spice trade you have to pick it up on the spor doctors use this interesting medically in some kind of balsom so maybe has some kind of medical use as well so I I I can't promise you that kosb is cannabis even though I've brought you some of the uh some of the sources there of the people in America some people really swear by this uh you know I did a little bit of research on the internet I found an interesting uh conference a few years ago which was recorded various different people speaking about this uh the conference was rather cleverly called Amel High uh which which I thought was an excellent an excellent uh name when I pointed this out to one of my students they said no I think you'll find it was a joint conference um but which was even better because uh she wasn't even a dad to use a dad joke of that kind um but I I can't promise that any of this is really compelling but the rambam says what it is there there is a missioner in Kim uh and the the different kazal sources talk a lot about this something called canus now canus is definitely the same family as cannabis because canus means canvas and canvas is a kind of cloth which of course does come exactly the same from the same name as cannabis because it's a cloth which is from the hemp plant and I brought you in the foot out there how cannabis and hemp are related uh in fact uh the um cannabis is only really a uh a drug if you like for recreational use if it has a a certain level of this chemical I talked about this in the foot not here tetrahydrocannabinol which was actually isolated and identified by an Israeli researcher in the 1960s in The whitesman Institute so for any of those people out there who want to boycott everything that originally came from Israel they're going to have to stop smoking cannabis as well they might not be too happy if you tell them that um but he located he he identified and isolated this particular molecule which is causing the the uh mental the psycho mental effect there but I brought you other there as well but this canus is actually mentioned for example look in number eight says number seven excuse me says the uh the mission if you had this plant the hemp plant sewn in your field or or another similar plant you're not allowed to sew something else on top of them shim because these particular plants canus and other things they take a while to germinate they take a few years and don't think oh well there's nothing going on in my field for the next year or two anyway I'll just sew something else here in the meantime no because that's Kim you're mixing all the seeds together mixing all the grasses together there is something under there growing it's just not growing as fast as you can you know see it um but nevertheless you can't do it so this canbus is definitely identified there is even a conspiracy theory that the original people who tried to ban cannabis were actually cloth Barons that didn't want the cloth hemp to replace the other cloths that they were producing because they were worried that people would uh switch over to to using hemp for everything and therefore they tried to ban the plants and it wasn't anything to do with the smoking of the Cannabis I can't guarantee that that's true I heard that as one of the conspiracy theories that goes around but canbus definitely was a plant that was used um I discovered a TOA the research for this was really actually very interesting uh the TOA talks about SH now sh again coming up in sa asmod sh is is um is linen now sh was one of the important ingredients that was used in the big dayun and also etc etc and also in the in the Furnishings of the B so the to says here in number eight this is linen okay flax um but if you brought it from canus it doesn't work it's not a good substitute and there is just flip flip over to page three I'm again I'm doing this quickly because it's not really the core uh the core material there is even a manuscript version of this particular tosa that I just quoted you a 14th century manuscript that actually writes the world not cus but cannabis which is quite interesting so it could be that that was even a spelling that was used in classic rinic literature for this plant cus cannabis Etc very interesting I brought you also uh because I think it was uh elen Hood's yite yesterday or the day before something like this not it's not something I celebrate or commemorate specifically um but I brought you from the Academia which I always think is EXT is extremely uh you know ironic that they couldn't think of a better name than Academia uh for a uh for an institution that is promoting the use of Hebrew words only but okay that's one of one of life's ironies so they they wrote here canas Osos or kashish and of course they associate this with kashish as well is based on an Arabic word and of course it's connected with the word assassin people who got themselves high on drugs and we've seen this very tragically sometimes people in order to be able to do the horrific things that they do uh drug themselves so that they they're not going to be restricted in the way that they're going to act but here it brings it down as canos Etc and there's a whole section related to Jules Vern which I didn't bring you because I'm not sure how interested you are in Jules Vern uh but uh but 80 Days wasn't it was what was Jules Vern 80 Days Around the World in 80 Days apparently the original Hebrew translation of that relates to to this as well anyway enough of that um number 10 I brought you the shul who brings down canus as one of the Wicks that you are allowed to use on Shabbat for your Shabbat candles because of course it's Wicks that only that take the flame well as opposed to the flame Just Dances around them and goes out you need a good flame for shabas candles so you won't be be tempted to move it and canus is one of those things and I brought you the mission Brewer that questions that therefore C canus is a very real thing um they did and I'll just leave this section with this point in tarad uh a few years ago they discovered a an altar uh which had looks as though it had been covered over very quickly by people who were trying to hide it uh from the time of around which actually makes a lot of sense because they were reforms uh to try and get rid of all the bamat all the private altars and it doesn't look as though this altar fell into disuse and and just fell apart it looks it was covered very quickly and they even found the substance which was on the little altar that they'd been burning before they covered it over and indeed it was Cannabis um cannabis actually mixed with some kind of animal dunks so that it would burn so there would be a scent of cannabis floating around this private altar so it seems pretty clear that there were people using this uh in the first temple period in whether it was illicit uh worship and or or official worship uh they were using this okay our question now really is okay so what's the story today leaving aside the biblical roots of cannabis or not and the real issue here is whether it's a danger to health and we'll see that uh this is true of course of smoking uh tobacco but it's also true of cannabis and it's more of a a controversy when it comes to cannabis we'll see in a minute most pokim have very clearly pasin and continued to do so that using cannabis for recreational use is prohibited and there are a number of reasons that they bring this down we're going to look at the entire cha R mosha it's not a very long cha but in 1973 mosha Feinstein was asked this CH we'll talk about where that actual Shila came from soon but I brought other post and I brought you down in the footnotes the actual language that they use here of ANP ra I brought you a reference here to Rael Sha's Chua he has a long cha where you can read it can print it off from w.org uh it he clearly says it's prohibited we'll talk maybe about some of the reasons that he gives rakov Ariel as well clearly says it's prohibited so there doesn't really seem to be a sh of most of the major post we're not talking about medical marijuana here we're talking about the recreational use but most post games seem to say clearly that not all but most that that is prohibited the reason is going to be is it dangerous and actually many many doctors will say it is dangerous and it's more dangerous than people think especially when it's being smoked by teenagers my daughter-in-law who is uh in medical school said it's they're not clear exactly why this statistic is but it is a very clear statistic that uh young people under the age of 20 who have smoked marijuana more than 50 times which is not that many from the because people start doing this at the age of 13 14 15 are six times more likely to suffer from schizophrenia later in life and again they six times more likely to suffer from schizophrenia and schizophrenia says very clear link that they found and they're not sure exactly what the reason is but that's just one of a number of some of these are disputed obviously I'm not a doctor I'm not here to give you medical advice please consult consult your local um medical uh advisor uh but let's look at some of these sources as to how that works the rabbis take looking after your health very seriously look at number 11 very interesting Source here ra RAB so ra raun was shooing with his son rabba and he says to him why have you stopped going to ra you know you were going to RDA and you stopped he's so analytically sharp it's such a great sh why did you stop going so the son answers to him why should I go why am I going to go to the I go to the shear and he schmoozes about like regular things not particularly toic topics he's telling me all sorts of things I'm not I'm not interested in going for that so for example he said to as I went to the sh he said if you're going to go to use the bathroom to use the toilet don't go too quickly and don't force yourself too much to to go to the bathroom and why do I need to listen to this I'm going for a Shar I'm not going for some kind of uh you know medical advice so the father Amal says to the son he's giving you health advice the and you consider that like minor inconsequential stuff all the more so you should go I didn't even know he was giving you that kind of guidance that's even more important than a than a sharp analytical sh you've of course got to go that is a core Mitzvah you should be going to that said the father to the son and this indeed is a mitvah theor brings it down in number 12 so why should you not have a rabid dog a vicious dog nearby that in your house around your house that could bite people you shouldn't have a ladder in your house which is a rickety ladder that could God forbid fall apart someone could fall off it and he qu a don't bring blood on your house don't have dangerous things and this is actually part of a series of I brought you in number 13 be very very careful with your life and it talks then about Sinai and onat level it's talking more about hashkafa but you'll see that the gar clearly takes being careful with physical life and then a few later is a big word doesn't say just for fun um you must be very careful in looking after your lives and actually bring this down in a very interesting episode in BR if you look at number 14 there was one now interesting he was Aid he was someone who wanted to do extra to do more to go further he wanted to take on the stuff that he didn't even need to take on and he was daving one of the local cacs you know or not cacs but were one of a Roman leaders came a soldier a general came and he says hello Jew he didn't respond to him because he was in the middle of so him so the the soldier waited till he finished philos his he said to him you empty foolish person gives him a whole it says in very careful says when I gave you a shom you didn't get you didn't answer that was terrible if I cut your head off right here right now Bes with a sword who would who could blame you know you can't you can't take your life in your hands like that and not respond it's you have aah yes like the people who walk in the street with their phones don't look where they going right they've got bumps on the head when they walk into right and more and more people are doing this you see I see people walking across roads on their phones pushing pushing babies you know on the it's unbelievable but okay you know we all get it's addicted to the phones yes that's what we're doing okay okay so we'll get to drinking uh soon um the shuk rules very clearly that this is indeed a Torah Mitzvah if you're look at number 15 if you leave your roof people go up on the roof and it doesn't have a proper fence you are breaking a positive and you are breaking a negative you can't bring blood onto your house anything that you could could be life endangering in some way you have to get rid of it you have to watch out for it you have to take very good care to avoid it and he brings the so there's no question this is a Torah mitzah interestingly it's not actually recorded in the 613 people often say to me when you mention a Mitzvah and say it's not in the 613 and go oh like why is it not in the 63 the answer is lots and lots of Torah Mitzvah are not in the Tarak Mitzvah it doesn't actually change their status at all which leads to the question like why do I even need to know which are the Tarak Mitzvah if it doesn't really make any difference hierarchically whether they're in or whether they're out and that's a good question maybe about categorization conceptualization of the Mitzvah what they fit under meaning you never get to the number 613 unless you really really try very hard if you guys may maybe when you've got nothing else to do one day open up the K at the beginning and count how many times it says do this or don't do that you'll never get to 613 years with thousands and thousands and thousands so this is clearly a t mitz it's brought down even though it's not in the 613 and the barola I brought you his closing words on the I'm not going to read them inside in 16 he says because God has given you the Miracle of Life so that you can use every minute of life in order to you know do the right thing build the world and go grow and and connect with God and Haba you can't throw that back in God's face he says that's what you're doing if you're not looking after your health you're throwing that back uh and there's no greater aepic corsus than that if God gave you a gift of that a magnitude to throw it back is uh is not okay uh is very not okay and we don't go after the RO I brought you in 17 we don't say oh it'll probably be okay you know eight out of 10 people who climb these ladders are manage just fine no nonsense it's a rickety ladder you can't have it however there are all sorts of things we do in life which are dangerous and we do them anyway for example the gamar says very clearly if you cross a dangerous desert and you survive then you have to bench gol you know if you go over the sea and you because it's dangerous in the SE well if it's dangerous why are you going what do you mean you have to bench gol the should be you're not allowed to cross a desert it's dangerous clearly you are allowed to cross a desert because that's one of the things you say bench go on so how do I know what is dangerous and I still can do and what is dangerous and I can't do and in fact there are three clear categories and again I'm not going to get into them in great detail um but we looked at them a little bit many years ago when we looked at the vaccination these are the three categories imminent and present dangers are prohibited on a Torah level and we'll see what they are right now low but significant risks are prohibited on a rinic level and dangerous things that have risk but every body in society does and just accepts that risk as part of the risk of just living they are permitted and we'll see what they are and we'll have to see where cannabis might fit into this let me just look at a few sources with you so the ramban brings these examples of the Torah prohibitions in number 18 whether it's a roof without a fence anything which is dangerous danger to life it's possible people might fall into that and they might die you have a hole in your in your garden you have a well or B or you have a pit in your courtyard in your in your there whether he got water doesn't go hasn't got water it has to have some kind of offense of meaning what if it's a you know it's only a hole that's you know 10 11 deep it would be so dangerous if someone Falls in no anything over 10im there's a danger to to life you have to have a barrier for that you have to make sure that people won't fall in and he says ya ya and again the rambam is not prone to exaggeration when he says ya yaa you have to do it really really well this is what he's talking about so that's for sure uh that would be things like leaving exposed wires where you know electrical wires uh going leaving kids near a pool swimming pool when there's no near the pool these are things that people should definitely obviously not do unfortunately some people do and could well include walking across the road with your looking at your phone at the same time now what about lower risk so number 20 there are other things says they are prohibited okay because they are they are dangerous about me and someone who says okay I'm going I'm prepared to take the risk it's fine why are you getting involved in my life leave me alone it's not your life it's my life or I'm not bothered about this particular risk is rashes so there's something different about these prohibitions these issues because they're not Torah prohibitions they're rinic prohibitions and he gives some examples don't go drink water coming out of a pipe because you're thirsty who knows where the waters come from PR is probably okay yeah but it might not be okay don't drink from a pond at night or from a lake from a pond might swallow a creepy crawly which and he's not worrying about the caseras you might swallow something which is dangerous you can't drink from water which is exposed because a snake might have drunk from these are lowlevel risks but they're serious in the said no look at some of the examples in the number 21 we're not worried about the snakes today because there are no snakes you know going into water that she exposed but the gives other examples he says don't put money in your mouth I remember when I was a kid my father was always very mpar never put money in your mouth tempting sometimes you're trying to get things out of your pocket you put something in your mouth says never put money on your mouth and I brought you a little footnote about how filthy money is and how many germs are living on your money so once you read that you'll want to use a credit card and that probably not much better there could be bacteria some kind of dried spites from someone who has a contagious disease don't keep food under your armpit you know if you're keeping it to just you know I don't know warm it up or or you know you can't help it's not it's not hygienic that's it's very sweaty there keep food under your bed and that's really a spiritual danger keeping food under your bed but he says it's a spiritual danger that could have physical implications and and the Remar gives other examples you you know you kind have a knife an exposed knife which someone could trip and fall on top of the knife etc etc and the key with all of those is that they are risks to health but they are lower level risks to health but they're nevertheless things that you can avoid and that you should void and they are rinic prohibitions rather than Terror prohibitions but they are still prohibited uh one of the things we discussed back in the day is does that include having a vaccination because the Remar says if there's an epidemic coming to your town get out before the epidemic comes you have a to you have a rabbinic Mitzvah to get out of the town so maybe that means vaccinating yourself also before the epidemic happens uh we talked about that you can get those uh online Etc but then and perhaps the mo the the most interesting of all is these things that we do but they're not healthy but we kind of just okay you know you can't think about everything you know God runs the world well you going to tell me I can't read I can't eat high cholesterol food and I can't eat fat e this and I can't eat meat anymore and I can't eat this and I can't eat that you know okay people get sick but not everybody gets sick how are you going to work this sound so 22 says the Rambo there is this third category since your your body has to be healthy sh and and functioning properly that is Father the DAR that is a religious oblig a you can't function spiritually if you're sick you have to avoid things which are which are bad for your body and only do things which are healthy etc etc don't eat don't overeat the first one on his list don't eat other than when you really need to eat don't drink unless you really need to drink don't delay going to the bathroom even a minute if you got to go you got to go and he talks about this a lot the rambam in his medical advice says the most illness in his opinion okay I'm not telling you to go to a 12th century physician for medical advice but he says most illnesses happen because of two things number one people eat too much he says number two people don't go to the bathroom enough and they eat the wrong kind of food and they're constipated Etc he really figures feels that that is the the two the two key things so ra rosi Fen in a 1981 cha has a famous truver about smoking cigarettes and there famously he says that he doesn't think smoking cigarettes in 1981 was in either of the first two categories he doesn't think it's a Torah prohibition he doesn't think it's a rabbi prohibition he thinks it's a danger to health which is uh normally accepted by most people in society now many of his family rosi tendler who is his son-in-law said yeah but his position hardened on this as the evidence hardened in 1981 I like mention this recently if you remember people were smoking everywhere in in the even in the 80s you know there was non-smoking on the plane and smoking on the plane and and everything and we didn't think everything smelt of cigarette smoke because we were used to it a lot more uh I remember my grandparents used to smoke a lot and at some point they gave up around about probably this kind of time maybe a little earlier um it was a very common thing and in this Tua he says here and I just want to pick out a couple of lines he says he quotes this line which we're going to see in the gor in a second from the God helps protects those who are simple these goras are talking about things which are dangerous but people do not take care against them and it's okay that they don't you can't normally rely when it comes to danger and by the way I I didn't bring you in Remar in quote when it comes to Danger we're more than when it comes to is for example if there's milk in your chicken soup or your beef soup or whatever it is if it's less than a 60th we're we're not M but if there's something dangerous and K considered that fish and meat together was dangerous to your health then we're more M even if it's less than a 60th because it's more serious than a Prohibition of a pure halakic nature and this has always been the big question of uh what we in English in England used to call wor sauce and what an Americans call wor sauce I don't know how many you need um but it has a little bit of Trace elements of fish in it but it's not technically speaking milk in any way and and can you have it with meat can you not have it with meat I'm not getting into that now but he says there are things which are dangerous but there are other things which are not third Lineum things which many many people do and they don't all get sick or most of them get sick there are so many foods that we eat people enjoy eating these Foods okay like fatty meat maybe alcohol sharp food things that people like okay but they are dangerous to some people some people really get sick because of these Foods there is no prohibition on these Foods and he says because of the hasem and he felt in 1981 that smoking fell into that category he was talking about tobacco however when he talked about cannabis he didn't say that he said it's AA now why why didn't he say sham hasem we'll see in a minute what he says on that this issue of sh pasam Hashem in 24 is dealing in the gamar with women who have a uh somewhat of a higher risk of pregnancy but not a massively higher risk obviously if the doctor turns around to a woman who's had a very difficult birth medically and says You must not get pregnant again then there's no shiler that that woman is definitely allowed to take birth control must take birth control in order to prevent some kind of medical emergency if the doctors are telling her but the gamar is not talking about that he's talking about for example a young woman or a small stature woman where you know could be difficult for her if she had gets pregnant and she has a baby she's not so big she can't really deliver the baby so easily could be dangerous for her don't forget people used to get married very very young you know 11 12 1 in Morocco etc etc even until recent times and the gamar says she doesn't have to take birth control because okay it's a little bit more dangerous she's a very small petite woman but you know God God protects those she's going to have a kid please God she'll be okay there having a child is a very dangerous thing she has a slightly increased danger sh hasem it's something that she can do uh in life without worrying about it and there are a number of factors that go into this and I brought you some of those factors I'll just mention them uh you know briefly Rim o grazinski said obviously how dangerous is it the more dangerous it is the less likely we are to say show me Pas Hashem look at page seven for a second the the ravak of etlinger said how imminent is the risk meaning if it's a risk down the line in 20 years in 30 years people who did this are more likely it's more likely to be permitted not always but more likely is it a normal risk the gamar number 27 again I'm not going into detail in this people he said when they go bloodletting so they only go blood letting on certain days of the week they never go bloodletting says the gamor on a Tuesday you know or or a Friday okay you shouldn't do that because or or rather not that they never do but it's dangerous to do because of Mars Mars's ascendants this astrologically you know they were concerned about some of these things so the gamorra says oh what about Fridays Fridays people tend to do that Mars is also as s he goes no that's what people do this people have taken this on in society people do this kind of thing normal people here's the key for us normal people do this as part of their normal life crossing the road is dangerous but people cross the road now is going skydiving for your 80th birthday a normal thing that people do I don't know I mean when I was a kid I don't think the uh 80y olds did that but now 80 is the new 50 you know and uh people get sponsored for charity they jump out of planes who knows what they do so I don't know if it's OA or if it's mura so the question is is it normal thing that people do also the uh I brought you in number 29 what is the gain versus the risk what are you getting out of it um the the the tresen actually says an interesting thing in number 30 he says that okay one second show God protects those who are foolish but if you're not foolish because you know what all the risks are then you can't rely on this this is for people who don't know any better but once you're already in on the on the on the statistics he says who who says you canun r on that okay that's an interesting idea but all all of that is is relevant when we come now into this very famous cha in 197 to3 and let's look at this together for the for the last 20 something minutes of the year because this is really the the and all the stuff we did up to now is very important because it gives the it gives the background so look at R moshe's Chua here number 31 the prohibition of smoking uh drugs okay so that's 197 3 now interestingly the background to this I brought you in the in the footnotes there were a number of young Bim that wrote a group of Orthodox teenagers wrote shilas to three leading post gim in the early 70s when obviously they were encouraged to get into the kind of uh 70s culture and they wrote to Rav Feinstein they wrote to Rav Emanuel jacobovitz and they also wrote to Rav Aaron solic can we or can we not smoke marijuana by the way just to know in brackets I put you a footnote earlier the name marijuana was was given to this in the 1920s or 30s uh some people object to it as a racist name because it's based on a Mexican word and it was all part of the associating Mexican immigrants with danger coming into society no one would do that any more obviously make that Association uh that was in the 1920s not the 2020s but nevertheless marijuana was the some people object to it uh but I'm sure that's now gone away again now that we're living in a new world a that that they concerned that woke concern but he he says word mean what what is the word it's some kind of Mexican tobacco it doesn't even mean cannabis cannabis is not part of the word can it's a word which was borrowed because it sounds foreign and dangerous Etc I'm not getting into that down so look what raos says number 31 there are which have started they they started smoking Kash there are many in the Torah which says that this is and the first of all of them is it's dangerous and you can't do it because it's dangerous and doesn't say has in tobacco even eight years after this he said when it comes to smoking weed working cannabis says no we're not going to say sh he says it's dangerous and therefore it's prohibited brought you some of the back and forth again this is a medical question is it dangerous is it not dangerous does it depend on what people are smoking you should just know that the marijuana that people are smoking in 2025 has 10 times the level of The Addictive chemical in it and the psychoactive chemical in it that the marijuana they were smoking in 1973 so they're not talking necessarily about the same thing you can turn around and say well you know everybody I know got through the 70s just fine smoking marijuana it's I mean it's it's not necessarily if they can remember the 70s they probably weren't smoking the marijuana but but the but the uh it's not necessarily the same stuff so on the one hand there are medical benefits and I listed some of these and on the other hand there are real potential dangers and I listed some of these as well and therefore there there is a health uh sort of calculation which needs to be made and as far as raos is concerned this is not permitted for health reasons now medical marijana is different I brought you a piece here from ra J B BL I'm sorry I didn't put his name on it he says he number 32 Judaism affirms that everything in creation is designed for a purpose alleviation of otherwise intractable pain is a known beneficial use of heroin it's an opioid marijuana is effective in alleviating nausea that is the side effect of some forms of chemotherapy and it's still used for that very much there is every reason to believe that these drugs were given to man for the specific purpose of controlling pain and discomfort Jewish teaching would enthusiastically endorse legislation legalizing the use with adequate accompanying safeguards of those sub es in the treatment of terminal patients and I brought you from the OU you you just mentioned before the OU um R gak who was the CEO of the OU and when this was quoted in number 33 Judaism prioritizes Health encourages the use of medicine designed to improve health and reduce pain using medical cannabis products recommended by physicians should not be regarded as a a sinful act but rather as a Mitzvah an imperative a commandment so medical use of marijuana is a very different thing it's prescribed by doctors uh it is used for the purposes of healing and I brought you a tuver of the tiela where he talks about giving morphine to terminally sick patients who are in God forbid in terrible pain and he says even if there's a risk that the morphine might in some way bring forward their demise uh medically since you're doing it for a legitimate medical reason and the alleviation of pain in someone in that level of pain La alenu is no question that's a legitimate medical uh benefit and therefore he he's not talking about cannabis he's talking about their um of opioids of of morphine but there's no question that he would apply that to cannabis as well so I don't think there's any sh about medical marijuana if it's done in a proper context with the doctor um that is definitely permitted but recreationally says R mosha I'm sorry the health risk takes precedence I actually brought you in the Cela which I underlined he quotes from The ramban Who was of course was a doctor nakis was a doctor and he says look every single drug can be harmful to some people and helpful to other people that's the nature of drugs that they they they what's that you said helpful to some and helpful and harmful to others so helpful to some and harmful to others so the fact that this has positive and negative applications um is uh is part of what medication is so that's the first reason ra mosha gives danger to health it does not fall under it's at least rically prohibited because of the health concerns and again check those out but the second thing he goes into is mental faculties which is very interesting number 35 and even if there are some healthy people and it doesn't really endanger them so you let's say you make the medical case and say no fine this is not going to be a problem people are going to be fine if they smoke this people take it so they can lose a little bit of the sharpness of what's going on in their mind and again there may be Medical that that becomes a legitimate thing to do that a doctor prescribes he's not talking about those people they don't understand things with the same Clarity when they're smoking this substance which is even worse meaning to mess up your body is bad enough but to mess up your mind how can you do that from that you can't learn Torah properly you can't D properly you can't do properly because if you do them without a proper mental faculty you didn't go keep them at all now again I'm not talking about someone who has so much anxiety that the anxiety itself is pre preventing them from actually functioning as a Torah Jew and actually what I might do over maybe not starting next Meek called maybe if I get chance to do it I'd like to give a few sh on mental health issues because mental health issues have been really looked at a a lot more by the poim ra has looked at it I'd like to talk about that because there's a lot to say about that but he's not talking about someone who is who can't function he's s someone who just like likes the feeling of smoking the marijuana he says no mental faculties are for us everything and the rambam I brought you various Halas number 3637 he says for us mental thinking is everything this is how we connect to God this is our Mitzvah if you look at number 37 when a person thinks about the the the wonders of creation and the wonders of the spiritual world as well um okay he thinks about all the Creations from the highest Angels the gilgal the galal sorry and the Spheres and the universe the Adam and think of man Etc he sees all the things that and he gets this kind of addiction but a positive addiction and this is why I brought the source that the rambam is saying that your mind can make you addicted to what you need to be addicted to which is God intoxication you're meant to be excited and obsessive in a certain way in a normal way but nevertheless your flesh is is is desperate to love God so it's actually not just a question that you're indulging in other things which are addictive in other ways is that you're preventing yourself self in allowing the real addiction that a Jew should have which is the addiction to thinking and to and to connection with God it should be something which people are are obsessive about in a certain way and therefore drugs will take you away from this and therefore he says in number 39 you're not allowed to get drunk It's POS you're not allowed to get drunk on alcohol it seems very clear says the rambam number 39 when a when a a wise person drinks drink in order to help your meal go down it's something all for religious purposes you have a etc anyone who gets drunk that's a sin no question anything you do that that that makes you less clear in your mind is clearly AA um and forgetting your learning is part of that and I brought you in 40 a source we saw a few weeks ago forgetting your learning is a serious uh it's almost like a a a capital crime and clarify this in number 41 anyone who causes themselves to forget something from their learning and the ritah says pish what does this mean not that people just forget we all forget stuff is part of life you forget you're not guilty if you forget because it's people get forgetful it no it's if you do something for yourself on purpose to make yourself less aware you chose this you did this on purpose goal leonov it's very bad for your children bad for the family bad for the Jewish people Etc so more so than danger to the body ra Moshe Feinstein is worried about anything we do which is dangerous to the mind and there's no question the lady said before that what goes on on puim um in all over the the world is completely in the Orthodox world all of the drunkenness is completely prohibited there's not even a Shila of any kind at all and uh and and uh they should drink maybe a bit more a bit less I'm not getting into who should drink and who shouldn't drink but getting drunk nobody says that is uh in a way that you actually lose your ability to perform Mitzvah Etc that's just a yat Sahara so that's the second Point losing your mind is prohibited by the way cannabis can be even worse than alcohol alcohol has a certain measured effect if someone has a sip of alcohol then it's very unlikely for almost any person to affect them in a significant way there's a clear level of which you can measure there are limits Etc I mean you may take the view that you're not never going to drive even if you had a sip of alcohol that seems like a sensible thing to say but there are certain levels which are measured where cannabis is not like that depending on the person they can react to the Cannabis in a way which is completely unpredictable even a small amount of this could be very very impactful on the on the the way they see things and it can stay in the bloodstream for a month doesn't take a month to get alcohol out of your bloodstream but cannabis can depending on the person and again I'm not a a doctor and I'm not a medical expert but these are issues that are talked now number 42 MOS goes on I give you another reason we have never really talked about this you're doing something which gives you you're choosing to do something which gives you more tyer more addiction more craving by the way it's interesting cannabis is used to improve people's um appetite people who are undernourished um and need medically there well this is one of the treatments that they given because it it increases it makes you want to eat more it makes you want to um experience more pleasure okay it makes you want to eat more than normal like normal amounts someone would eat in order just to keep them alive and there are people who can't control this there are people who when they smoke this it gives them a whole it opens up a world of Ty for them and this is quite separately a separate so where is he learning this from this is extremely creative very interesting sh this boy the what we see in this boy even at this young age whether you say it either happened or it never happened I'm not getting into that now is you see somebody who is wants to open for themselves all the gates of TAA of of hedonistic life even though he'll it's glad kosher that does not the point the point is you can see him opening this lifestyle but you certainly not to bring yourself to this when you don't need it you didn't have to do this that's clearly Theus even though we you don't you don't bring a and administer punishment you can't say well gets this and this is even worse and therefore we're going to punish but that's only when it comes to the Basin call when it comes to the prohibition over that's for no sure no question for sure if you smoke cannabis he says you're basically doing the same thing as the Ben very interesting number 42 list and also the addiction of the Bor Amore which he's linking will eventually bring him to steal because he won't be able to control it and he needs the substance and he needs it and he'll kill people and he'll he'll basically go completely out of control that he said is the is the Mitzvah of B and you're bringing yourself into that para by doing something to you that that uh breaks down these inhibitions leaving aside the issue of sexual behavior then people put themselves in a state where they do things I mean lot is the classic example here isn't it that there's all sorts of stuff he'd like to do but he won't do as long as he's sober because you know he's from AR's family so he knows it's wrong but he'll get himself into a situation where he's basically incapacitated by drinking drugs and now he'll do all the things he really wanted to do all along but it said that's also part of part of what's going on here I brought you a cabalistic source I brought you the the also the the Shar Chua a more Musa oriented Source in 43 that talks about the need not to actively increase our physical desire and now again we don't have to be monks we don't have to be Aesthetics we're allowed to enjoy the food we're allowed to have you know healthy enjoyable sexual relationships between husband and wife Etc but when it's being done to indulge and that's the reason that you're doing it because I can't get enough of it says you know that you're in a on on a slippery slope and that's not the not the it's very hard to do it's extremely hard to do very hard to do and you have to really you know everyone has different tyers in different directions um in number 44 I brought you the uh the ra of breast Love From Here Froman he says now all the desires of the body are the aspects of the cpods if you get into the to the uh the the cabalistic cosmology if you like of the spiritual world and the physical world of the arisal the idea that the uh the the kalim that were part that were spherus that were meant to hold the Divine Light was smashed and now there's these cipot all around the world which are encasing the forces of kadha and that's part these kipot are served by our physical desires this is because the physical desires are extraneous since the body could exist without them etc etc and we looked at a couple of those other sour SES um last week that I brought said to his son don't drink this stuff because it's bad for you and Rashi says it's bad for you because you'll become addicted etc etc um interestingly Just One Last Source on this particular section at number 48 so I brought you in 48 there's a ter prohibition the Jewish people are slaves to me says God are servants to me a they are mine and the gar says you can't enable yourself to become a slave to anything else and that could be work it could be drugs it could be uh your phone it could be and that's really hard to do you're not once you feel that you're not able to control what you're doing anymore then you've become an EV to an ed and that is itself part of this prohibition and R Moshe Fein finishes off having gone through all of those factors the physical health the issue of addiction the issue of Etc look at 49 losing one's mind 49 he says he finishes it's a sorry the the fathers the parents of these people who smoke they they smoke this stuff they're very upset that the kids are now part of this culture and you're breaking Kim you upset your parents in that way again you don't always have to do what your parents say in the MIT of but this is very distressing to his parents or hers there's aah of to go extra to do even if it's not technically prohibited to put yourself in this positive space they're causing all these other it seems absolutely clear absolutely obvious this is one of the worst things you can do you have to try and get rid of this cannabis from the Jewish people certainly theas it absolutely not now one of the things he didn't talk about there I only have a few minutes so I'm going to use them just for this he what if is it prohibited in Hala because it's prohibited under the Crim criminal law let's say of the land that you're living in let's say it's illegal now that's less less relevant because it's more and more legal but that's an interesting question and that is too big a topic to open up now because it really depends is it a law that everyone keeps is it the law that everyone breaks how does that work how doesn't relate to every single thing this exactly would apply to smoking it's even more yeah yeah it could be it could be except except except let me just mention this now I brought you in number 50 I brought you number 50 a uh an essay written recently by RoR Dr Boro finlin and he addresses actually your point What's the difference and he wants to argue and many doctors disagree with this on medical grounds and posim on on haki grounds he he's a student of RA moshe's sakim and and Chas and he has stuff online on R mosha he wants to say that RAV mosha gave so many reasons to prohibit this because he didn't really have a good reason to prohibit it and the real reason he was against it was because of the counterculture of the 1960s and it represented something and he says and now it doesn't represent that anymore people who smoked cannabis in the 1970s were re ing in some sense against the dominant culture he says the people who are smoking cannabis here now he said are the dominant culture you know it it it it it didn't do Bill Clinton any harm when he admitted when he was on the presidential race that he you know he he smoked cannabis in Oxford but he didn't inhale but he smoked cannabis okay didn't harm him in in can you imagine the 1950s 60s he would have been finished well you smoke cannabis illegally you can't be the president you can't have a president who's a felon or anything like that um and and and and and obviously it didn't make any difference to to Bill Clinton and therefore there a lot of people have disagree with this I brought you at the very end just on the last page so you can see it I brought you the sherei who was who was asked about LSD which is uh even more of there's a whole psychedelic you know Revival now going on about mental stimulation and he says no that's not the Jewish way we don't stimulate stimulate ourselves from drug by drugs uh we stimulate ourselves by uh learning and excitement and spiritual highs I brought you from ra steinels who had a Yus with laich rebbi and he talked him about drugs and using drugs and he said clearly the rebi was against it and let's give the last word to raic number 53 people speak about religious experiences today trying to stimulate religious experien with drugs of all kinds of acrobatics while actually engaging in idolatrous practices one cannot get but one cannot get a religious experience that is a Jewish religious experience without utilizing the materials of okay alic got his high from learning Torah okay uh and uh and it's something that one can do um and therefore I think it's relatively clear uh in terms of seconding that most people give but you can go and ask your local Orthodox Rabbi again we talked about mer medical marijuana has been quite different and next week maybe we'll try and get into some of these mental health issues if I can get that done in time and we'll move on from there thank you so much and we'll leave you there