‘Reefer & Responsa’

It’s a straightforward question: “What are the contemporary halakhic and Jewish ethical statuses of the consumption, possession, and sale of cannabis?”

Rabbi Raysh Weiss, a member of the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, answered it, taking 18 earnest pages to decide that, yes, medicinal marijuana use is fine. Otherwise, probably not; she broke the question into six subsections.

Two other committee members, Rabbi David J. Fine of Temple Israel and JCC in Ridgewood and Rabbi Barry Leff, co-wrote a dissent.

On Wednesday, August 13, the three rabbis will discuss the issue online, in a panel called “Reefer & Responsa,” in a program sponsored by the movement’s Exploring Judaism, which according to its website is “the digital home for Conservative/Masorti Judaism.”

A guest will speak as well. It’s Ben Kraim, a co-founder of the website called tokinjew.com. (If you don’t get it right away, say it out loud.)

Rabbi Fine explained the panel and the process.

“Raysh Weiss has been working on it for a long time,” he said. “We voted on it at the end of 2023. The first conclusion — that medicinal usage is acceptable — is a no-brainer. We didn’t really need a paper to say that.”

The Law Committee’s perhaps arcane rules allow for a range of opinions on the same subject to be accepted, even if they contradict.

In this case, the first conclusion, or psak — passed overwhelmingly. Psakim two through seven, which asked, among other questions, including whether it is necessary to say a bracha before consuming edibles — the answer is yes — were presented together as a unit and also passed, although with a tighter margin. One of those conclusions was that because smoking anything is not acceptable according to halacha, it is unacceptable to smoke weed.

Rabbis Fine and Leff, in their joint, pithy, two-page dissent, wrote that they believe that it is excessive to say that any kind of smoking is so dangerous that it may not be allowed, and that smokers of anything, no matter how little, no matter how infrequently, should be seen as inherently bad.

“There is no doubt that consumption of either tobacco or marijuana can be harmful to one’s health,” they write. “While saving lives is indeed a top Jewish priority, we do not see it as reasonable to consider those engaged responsibly in inherent risky behavior to be deemed as transgressors and sinners in Jewish law.

“Everyday life is full of dangers,” they continued. “Over 40,000 people die in car accidents in America every year. We believe what the Jewish concern for health and avoiding danger teaches us is not a simple, “Do not drive.” Rather, when we drive, we should do it as safely as possible: wear our seat belts, obey speed limits, adjust speed for conditions, keep the vehicle well-maintained.”

Therefore, they write, “Having a few puffs on a joint a few times a year is no doubt less injurious than consuming a gummy every day. Hence our objection to psak 3 as a blanket statement.”

The issues in all seven conclusions will be examined at the panel discussion.

Rabbi Mordechai Rackover is the executive director of Exploring Judaism, which is part of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. It’s an initiative that began about three years ago and is opening softly, because its leaders plan to build up a substantial library of resources before its planned public launch. “Then we can say, ‘hey, we’re live!’” Rabbi Rackover said.

It’s aimed primarily at Jews between 25 and 45 years old — that’s a big age spread, Rabbi Rackover acknowledged, ranging from people just out of college to parents of high-schoolers — who might, or statistically more likely might not, be synagogue members. But they’re interested in what Judaism has to offer.

The panel “is topical, it is exciting, it has the feeling of ‘wow, halacha is talking about issues that are contemporary, political, sociological, moral. An important idea at Exploring Judaism is that you should be able to put a Jewish lens on just about anything. Agree or disagree, you should be able to look through a Jewish lens — telescope or microscope — and see that there are ways to ask questions about this experience or this idea that are specific to Jewish culture and Jewish tradition.”

In a way, Rabbi Rackover said, the panel will be important not only for the subject being discussed, but the way the discussion is structured; for the understanding and exploration of halacha as a way to examine an issue that might not be Jewish in a specifically Jewish way. It shows that Jewish law, and the Jewish habits of mind behind it, can be part of everyday life.

Mr. Kraim, the tokin’ Jew, will talk for about 10 minutes, Rabbi Rackover added. He’ll explore why he thinks that a discussion about marijuana is relevant, about how the culture’s understanding of the dangers and pleasures of pot has changed, and about how comedians in general — and Jewish comedians in particular — have helped in that shift, because of how powerful laughter is.

The panel’s creators tried some humor themselves. On the version of the panel’s flyer aimed at donors, there is a suggested price, although in reality it’s free. (But donations always are welcome, for this as for all nonprofits.) That price is $420; 420 is short for pot-smoking, although the way that the number — often but not always a date or a time — got that meaning is debated.

And he might get a bit more serious. “Personally, I started TokinJew as a way to explore that intersection — Jewish identity, cannabis culture, and the search for meaning,” Mr. Kraim wrote.

To register for the panel, go to uscj.org/cannabis.

Who: Rabbis Raysh Weiss, David Fine, and Barry Leff, and Ben Kraim of tokinjew.com

What: Will talk about “Reefer and Response”

When: On Wednesday, August 13, at 1 p.m.

Where: On Zoom

How to register: Go to uscj.org/cannabis