Any Jewish People Here?

I'm not Jewish but my wife is.


Well, to be honest she's Jew-ish. She only goes to temple on the high holidays, Bar / Bat-Mitzvahs, weddings, funerals, etc...


So I'm not much help. Sorry.

 

My dealer back in that mainland was jewish

-Yuri

 

There was a couple of very vocal Jewish blades here. J Dilla and Tom but they seem to have moved on to pastures new.

What attracts you to Judaism?


Typed in the cockpit of a runaway Boeing

 

There's a very old story from my grandfather's family on my mom's side that their ancestors were victims of Spanish pogroms and immigrated to Mexico and then migrated up to New Mexico to escape persecution. They were members of Los Hermanos Penitentes. A very strange offshoot of Catholicism that performed actual crucifixions. There was an individual who was chosen (always voluntary) to represent Christ and is eventually put in a cross and crucified. Of course this only happened once a year and the dude was tied to it and later taken down when the ceremony was over. My grandfather and great-grandfather were Penitentes. My mother used to tell me about the processions and rituals she witnessed as a child.


Anyway, back to the topic. There are families in New Mexico that went underground and hid their Jewish heritage. Over the ensuing centuries a lot of families forgot they had Jewish ancestry BUT would only marry into certain Latino families. It was tradition. My mother used to say to my sister, "Never marry an Armenta. They're not like us." I asked her about it and she said it was something her father used to tell her and his mother before him.


Funny this topic should come up now. I saw a news report on this just yesterday and I ordered a DNA kit to find out if it's all hype or if there's a grain of truth to it. I'm excited.

 

I am half Catholic from my mom's side and half Ashkenazi (white european jew) from my dad's side. My Catholic mother converted to Judaism under an Orthodox conversion when my parents got married before I was born. This means that even though I'm only half Jewish by blood, because of my mom's conversion I'm considered legally 100% Jewish whether I like it or not.

My Jewish side of the family were Orthodox when they lived in Europe and when they immigrated to the USA they became Conservative. My paternal grandparents spoke Yiddish (the language of Ashkenazis) as their first language and raised their family under Conservative Judaism so that's pretty much what I was when I was born. My religious upbringing in my childhood consisted of celebrating Jewish holidays with family, going to temple on occasion, and I was forced to go to Hebrew school for three years as a kid where I learned to read, write, and speak in ancient Hebrew as well as learned about all the stories in the Torah (Old Testament).

I'm an agnostic leaning towards atheism and I always have been for as long as I can remember. Now that I'm grown up and living on my own, I don't do anything religious whatsoever and at this point both of my parents are atheists also so neither do they. So I'm not a practicing Jew, I'm one of those American secular Jews who only cares about the cultural aspect of the religion rather than the religious practice itself. The only thing related to Judaism that I do now is to study Yiddish. Linguistics is one of my main academic interests and since Yiddish is literally my "father tongue" and it's connected to my family heritage I am teaching it to myself just as a hobby.

So as to how I reconcile my religious "beliefs" with my regular cannabis use, I remind myself that cannabis is not exactly a harmful intoxicant, it's more of a medicine for me really. Judaism does have a rule about how your body is your own personal temple created by God and you shouldn't desecrate it with tattoos, piercings, or drugs that are poisonous to your body. By that logic, it should be against alcohol and from what I've seen in my family, Jewish people drink A LOT of alcohol especially red wine. And in Judaism, it's considered socially acceptable for parents to let their children drink wine with dinner. I have personal experience with this. I was given wine sometimes especially for holiday dinners and when I was a baby my mom used wine to sedate me when she needed to calm me down. So there is nothing wrong with smoking weed from my perspective. If it's considered bad it's only because it's illegal and it really shouldn't be. It doesn't interfere with my morality and it's helping me so even if there is a God he won't have a problem with me smoking. That's my belief about cannabis.

 

I am Israeli Jewish. Would love to answer any questions you have. Jews tend to be quite spiritual so indulging in cannabis isn't uncommon for a Jew. Many members of my Israeli family smoke weed.

 

nein


had to..

if some jewish law would say you cant smoke, would you pick another religion to join?

 

Zikher

 

No, I'm not Jewish.

 

I'm a little surprised there aren't currently more Jewish tokers here. Cannabis seems very popular with American Jews of my generation and judging by old posts on this forum there used to be numerous Jews here who talked about it very openly.

To the OP, if you're thinking of converting from Catholic to Jewish, the Reform movement will be your best bet. They will be the most liberal about your lifestyle including cannabis use and you probably wouldn't like Orthodox or Conservative and those movements would make you jump through a lot of ridiculous hoops just to convert and you probably wouldn't agree with their practices if you were turned off by the Catholic Church.

 

i suggest you leave the whole religion behind, somewhere around the place you left the eastern bunny and santa