Earlier this year, Rabbi Moshe Elefant, COO of the Orthodox Union’s kosher certification agency, held “preliminary discussions” with agencies keen to gain kosher status for the medical use of marijuana, the Jewish Daily Forward website reported.
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The Times of Israel noted that another Israeli rabbi, Efraim Zalmanovich, had ruled medical marijuana kosher in 2013.
This overturns an 800-year-old ruling that kitniyot are banned on Passover for Ashkenazi Jews, or Jews of Eastern European descent.
The Archbishop stressed in the message that these words of Psalm 115, which are read during the Passover, are also included in the daily prayers (Liturgy of the Hours) of the Roman Catholic Church. Jewish law requires eating kosher foods, which aside from unleavened bread include fruits and vegetables, meats such as beef, chicken and fish, some nuts and eggs, among other items.
As Rabbi Amy Levin tells NPR’s Scott Simon, the custom banning my beloved rice and beans – as well as foods like lentils, edamame and popcorn – dates back to the 13th century.
The Jewish holiday begins Friday at sundown.
The Torah mentions five types of grain that can become leavened, or chametz, if they remain in water for more than 18 minutes: wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt. Last year’s ruling puts both types of Jews – at least those who identify with the Conservative branch of Judaism – on equal footing when it comes to Passover observance. But now that the Conservative Movement has approved Ashkenazi Jews incorporating kitniyot into their Passover diet, I’m re-thinking my foodie traditions.
Today President Vladimir Putin congratulated the Russian Jews on this big holiday.
Ashkenazi rabbis banned food within the family of legumes, known as kitniyot, centuries ago because they resemble leavened food when they are cooked.
How is this night different from any other night indeed!
Horowitz said he had hoped that those people, who he said are prominent and reputable but that neither he nor his attorney, Arnold Pedowitz, would name, could help resolve Horowitz’s objections to OU’s and Manischewitz’s kashrut standards at the Newark plant.
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Yet, she wrote, “this drive to connect – to ancestors, to other Jews – is a powerful motive, at Passover especially”.
