I Want to be Sephardic

First, there is the food.

They got olive oil, we got schmaltz.

They sit on the spice road, and we got ……… schmaltz.

Over Passover, they get to eat rice and beans, legumes are known as kitniyot, which Ashkenazic rabbis have ruled could be made into something too close to flour, though this does not apply to things like chestnuts, whose flour is actually used to make pastries. (Go figure)

Well, Rabbis have now declared marijuana to be kitniyot, and hence forbidden on Pesach, so no 420 on 4/20:

It’s that time of the year again — Passover and 4/20, the unofficial marijuana celebration day. On the same day.

The celebration of all things green poses a particular problem for the chosen people. Namely, is smoking pot kosher for Passover?

Sorry to disappoint, but it seems not.

In 2007, Israel’s Green Leaf Party, which supports the legalization of marijuana, declared that cannabis is among the substances Jews are forbidden to consume during Passover.

“You shouldn’t smoke marijuana on the holiday, and if you have it in your house you should get rid of it,” Michelle Levine, a spokeswoman for the party, said at the time.

Why? Because hemp seeds are considered to be kitniyot.

While biblical law prohibits eating leavened foods, rabbis have since extended the rules to apply to foods like beans, corn and rice. Hemp seeds, found in marijuana, falls under that category. So voila, no Mary-Jane for you — if you’re Ashkenazi that is.

Sephardic Jews have traditionally been allowed to eat kitniyot during Passover, so when it comes to 4/20, they’re in the clear.

I'm seriously bumming, even if I have not indulged in over 20 years. (The joys of a pee in a cup career)

H/t my hairier brother, who posted this to Facebook.