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Jews & Drugs (working title), which I have
spent nearly five years researching and writing, explores the ancient relationship between
the Jewish people and drug use, from the
shamanic rites of the ancient Hebrews through
the Israeli rave scene and beyond. The book
seeks to communicate a cohesive understanding of the place of entheogens in Judaism and
early Christianity, culminating in a proposal
for the reintegration of entheogenic explorations into Jewish ritual practice for the modern era.
The book features interviews with noted
Jewish scholars and scientists involved in
the areas of radical Jewish thought, psychedelic research, and drug policy reform. These
include Douglas Rushkoff, R.U. Sirius, Dr.
Lester Grinspoon, Ethan Nadelmann, Rick
Doblin, Mickey Hart, Ram Dass, and Reb
Zalman Shachter-Shalomi. I explore a myriad
of issues, including allusions to entheogenic
substances in the Torah, psychedelic tales of
Hasidic Judaism's founder, the Ba'al Shem Tov,
Jewish participation in American counterculture,
drug abuse in Brooklyn's Hasidic community, psychedelic use among religious settlers
living in the Occupied Territories, and the
Israeli ecstasy trade.
Jews & Drugs attempts to clearly delineate
between acceptable religious exploration and
drug abuse, relying upon rabbinic commentary
and modern psychological research. The hope
is to provide a counterpoint to the dominance
of "zero tolerance" drug policy and the perpetuation of misinformation in the religious
community by demonstrating the value of
entheogens and the influence they have had
on Judeo-Christian thought and practices.
I hope to complete the book by 2006. I
invite anyone who has material to share
relevant to these subjects to contact me via my
website, OrthodoxAnarchist.com.
Daniel Sieradski is the founding editor of the
popular Jewish weblog Jewschool.com. He currently lives in Jerusalem where he studies in yeshiva
exploring Jewish texts and historical materials. He
joined MAPS on our tour of Israel in March 2005.
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