The Ancient Jewish Use of Cannabis Oil

By: Yoseph Leib Needelman-Ruiz (Ibn Mardachya)

Cannabis (kaneh bosem) is one of the only spices in the ancient anointing oil, as described in the Torah, along with two kinds of Cinnamonium to activate the stuff within the oil. This was mixed in during the desert shlep with Moses and used exclusively for the Kohenic practices. The inscence, on the other hand, was made with some regularity by the Kohen family of Avetinas by the time Egypt becomes Ptolmeyic, and the option to buy it directly from Egypt emerges, during the Second Temple period. But the Egyptian Shit just isn’t as good, and the Kingdom of Judea goes back to having their own Kohanim make it, for however much they’ll charge. 

When I was a young scholar, I took great pride in saying that the ancient Jewish Cannabis use was in the oil, not the inscence, applied topically. I also approved the tradition of post-meal spice burning in the tents, since it’s really better to smoke after a meal than before, if your appetite is fine and you’re hoping to feel full and satisfied in your high.

It wasn’t until I went to Israeli prison for weed stuff in 2016/2017 that I had a chance to see inside the Ramban, Rashi’s main student, where in his commentary on the biblical section commanding the use of specific Inscence and Anointing Oil argues that EVERYTHING that was in the Anointing Oil was ALSO in the Inscence!  Some examples are literally self-explanatory (the assorted Cinnamonium and Cassias) but the one glaring one, the Kineh Bosem, he somehow refuses to justify or explain.

Why not explain the need for Kineh Bosem if you’re going to explain everything else? The only answer can be found in context: Cannabis, and psychedelics like it, tend to be controlled or illegal under The Great Roman Empire, maybe for similar reasons to why it was controlled and monopolized by specific Shamamic Priesthoods (like ours!) but unlike those, it becomes completely repressed by Roman Christianity as an intoxicant.