7 Ways to Celebrate the Jewish Holidays with Cannabis

While some modern Jews may be skittish about cannabis, ancient Israelites were not. In May 2020, Israeli archeologists identified cannabis residue on artifacts that came from an ancient temple in the south of Israel. This showed that ancient Jews used cannabis as part of their religious rituals. We don’t know if they got stoned from it, but the optimist in me hopes they did.

If you want to celebrate the High Holidays this year in the spirit of those ancient Jews, you have several good options (some of these will require familial cooperation or hosting your own seder.)

You can:

1. Make an apple pipe

There are so many apples at every Rosh Hashanah celebration that one or two going missing is unlikely to be noticed. You can make a traditional apple pipe with just an apple and a pen or if you’re feeling more creative, you could go for a hollowed apple pipe. The smoking experience is about the same whichever apple pipe you choose and neither one will make your smoke apple flavored (sorry!)

Need help? How to make apple pipes instructions here

2. Infuse honey for your apples and honey

If you’d prefer to eat your cannabis, you could infuse your honey and share it with your entire family or seder. Edibles are nice because they won’t set off your smoke detectors and have the added benefit of starting to have an effect after 30 to 90 minutes and reaching peak effect in two to four hours. That timing should work out perfectly for anyone who doesn’t want to end up bickering with family during the holidays.

Need help? How to infuse your honey instructions here

3. Turn that infused honey into honey cake

If you’ve made too much cannabis infused honey for your Seder and you want to repurpose it, honey cake is a great option. As a bonus, by the time dessert happens, you’ll have a decent idea how much of an impact the apples and infused honey have had and you’ll know how much honey cake to eat to titrate up to your ideal effect.

Need help? Jewish honey cake instructions here (Remember to replace regular honey with your infused honey.)

4. Apologize and receive forgiveness for mistakes while consuming cannabis

Cannabis helps a lot of us feel calmer and closer to the people we’re consuming cannabis with. Yom Kippur and the High Holidays generally are a time of atonement for past mistakes and looking to the future. If you practice the tradition of Teshuvah and asking friends and family for forgiveness for past mistakes, doing so during a cannabis consumption session might make things easier. If you’re the one asking for forgiveness, providing the cannabis would be a nice step towards making amends.

Need help? Learn more about Teshuvah here

5. Indulge in some fruity infused gummies

Most people think of gummies as a Passover treat but with Rosh Hashanah’s focus on new fruits, there is no reason you can’t enjoy gummies for Rosh Hashanah too. In fact, if you make your own, you could have kosher infused pomegranate gummies! The trick to infusing your fruity gummies is going to be infused sugar, which (depending on where you live) you can either buy or make at home. You can use any fruit for your gummies but for Rosh Hashanah, I would recommend apple, grape or pomegranate.

Need help? Kosher gummy instructions here 

6. Bake infused challah

Challah is another Jewish food that does well when turned into an edible. Like honey and gummies, you do need to be careful not to accidentally overdo it on the challah. Of course, if you have a high tolerance or make very lightly infused edibles, you could enjoy your infused honey with your infused challah. Oh wow, that sounds good. 

Need help? Infused challah instructions here

7. Try something new

As you look forward to the new year, consider expanding your horizons and trying something new. In keeping with this article’s theme, I recommend that at least one of your new things be cannabis-related. If you’re a smoker consider, giving edibles a try (the recipes earlier in this article are a great starting point.) If you’re an edibles enthusiast, topicals might be worth a try. If a new consumption method isn’t for you, consider a new strain or a new product type. There are so many great strains and products out there that it’s unlikely you’ve tried them all already.

Need help? Learn more about topicals here