cannthropology
PRESENTS
The ruins of the temple fortress at Tel Arad in Israel’s Negev desert. Below: Tokin’ Jew seder plate.
40
Kosher Kush leafmagazines.com
Highlighting the history of Jews and Cannabis.
It’s well established that, for Grav Labs’ menorah bong. millennia, Cannabis has been used as food and fiber, as well as for medicinal and sacramental purposes by many ancient cultures … but would it surprise you to know that the Hebrews were among them? Now, a new exhibit at New York City’s YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is showcasing the age-old relationship between the Chosen Cairo Geniza fragment. TEXTS & TEXTILES People and their apparent drug of choice. Titled “Am Yisrael But these are hardly the High: The Story of Jews and Cannabis,” the exhibit contains only references to Cannabis in ancient Hebrew a number of contemporary items – including a shofar pipe, a Yiddish translation of the book “Hashish” and a menorah texts. The Talmud (the primary source of Jewish bong by Grav Labs, which curator Eddy Portnoy says served religious law) discusses growing hemp and how as the inspiration for the exhibit. It also features a sampling it should be kept separate from other crops. of documents from the Cairo Geniza: a collection of around There are also references to Jews using hemp 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments discovered in the textiles to make religious garments such as tallitot (prayer shawls), tzitzit (knotted fringes Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo in the 1800s. Among the or tassels), and even burial shrouds. gems found in this treasure trove of material are song lyrics “It’s most prominent in clothing and about a Jew high on hashish and wine with a severe case of is considered to have a form of spiritual the munchies, and a “purchase order” for protection, so it was used very comhashish in exchange for silver dating from monly in burying the dead in Israel,” the 13th century CE.
JUNE 2022
Tokin’ Jew shofar pipe.
says Rabbi Yosef Glassman, MD, who spoke at the exhibit’s opening. “It’s believed that when there’s resurrection of the dead in the future, people will be wearing Cannabis clothing.” Hemp was often used to build Schach (Sukkah roofs), and in the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) it’s also recommended as the preferred material for wicks in Shabbat lamps and candles. KANEH BOSEM There are also several places in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) that refer to a spice called kaneh bosem, which may or may not be Cannabis. The Aramaic term (also referred to as kanabos) appears five times in the Old Testament – most significantly in Exodus, where God lists it among the five spices in the recipe for holy anointing oil he dictates to Moses. Historically, most sources have translated kaneh bosem as “sweet cane” – a vague description that makes identifying it difficult. Some scholars have interpreted it to be calamus, while others even believe its identity was purposely kept a secret because it was so sacred.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF YIVO ARCHIVES (4)
