Daily Halacha High

Received from Amshinover who received it by email from some holy spammer of halachot.

Hilchos Shavuos 5769/2009

918.There is a (not so well known) minhag to bring good smelling grasses into shul to be passed around for people to make a beracha and smell the grass in remembrance of the Simcha of Mattan Torah where Har Sinai was surrounded by grass.Shulchan Aruch w/Mishnah Brurah 494:3

919. When practicing this minhag one should not pass the grass around during davening between Boruch She'amar and kaddish after Sh'mona Esrei because one is not permitted to interrupt davening at that time to make the beracha. Shulchan Aruch w/Mishnah Brurah 494:3

I haven't checked this inside - I don't even know what word the source uses for grass - nor have I investigated the grass-oriented customs prevalent in the Jewish or surrounding non Jewish community at the time this was written; still, I feel comfortable asserting that the grass in question isn't marijuana.

That said, I take it for granted that both great and ordinary Jewish men of yesteryear used substances that society now forbids. The dangers and risks weren't well understood, and people once used heroin, opium, and cocaine as ordinary medicines. Others used these substances in the same way that we use whiskey. Related

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