NO SMOKING!
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NO SMOKING!
Many Gedolim- including R’
Chaim Kanievsky,[1]
R’ Elyashiv,[2]
R’ Moshe Sternbuch,[3]
R’ Aharon Kotler, R’ Yaakov Kaminetzsky, the Be’er Moshe,[4]
the Tzitz Eliezer[5]-
have already expressed their opinion[6]
that it is forbidden[7]
to smoke.[8]
Some Gedolim even referred to smoking as suicidal.[9]
When R’ Chaim Kanievsky was
asked if smoking is prohibited on Yom Tov, he responded, “It is biblically
prohibited on Yom Tov as well as on any other day of the year for a Jew to
smoke.”
The Chofetz Chaim[10]
(1839-1933) writes, isn’t it said that one is not permitted to harm himself
because of ונשמרתם לנפשותיכם. Additionally, the world belongs to
Hashem… and He gave everyone strength according to his needs. So how can one do
to himself as he pleases…? And if because of his smoking his strength is
weakened, he will assuredly pay the ultimate price at the time of judgment
since he did this of his own free will and not because he was compelled. The
Chofetz Chaim also writes there that smoking costs money. How much does one
spend on cigarettes yearly? So in the end, smoking causes a loss in health,
money and Mitzvos (This is besides the waste of time it causes. If one smokes a
half-hour daily, this comes out to be close to 200 hours annually. Imagine how
many Mitzvos one can do with this time!). When one contemplates the damage it
causes, it can strengthen him not to accustom himself in this. If he is already
accustomed in this, then he should minimize smoking a little each day until he
eventually stops completely.[11]
When R’ Avigdor Miller (1908-2001)
was asked whether smoking was forbidden by the Torah, he cited the Alter of
Slobodka who, responding to a query to name the primary Mitzvah of the Torah,
replied that the principle Mitzvah is, “Don’t be a fool.” R’ Miller explained:
“The first command is to use your head. God gave us brains- we should use them…
Anyone who picks up a pack of cigarettes and reads (the notice on the package)
of the danger of smoking and disregards it, is a שוטה גמור; an absolute fool.
R’ Asher Wiess said that in
his eyes smoking cigarettes is like eating נבילות
וטריפות. R’
Menashe Klein[12]
(1924-2011) concludes a Teshuva that
there is no reason to make a decree to forbid smoking since כבר מושבע ועומד מהר סיני[13];
we stand under oath from the time of the Revelation at Har Sinai to fulfill all
the Mitzvos,[14]
as the Torah already tells us ונשמרתם מאד לנפשתיכם,[15] adding
that he would never give a cigarette or even ‘a light’ to anyone, not to
transgress לפני עור
לא תתן מכשל.[16]
In שו"ת עשה לך רב,[17]
R’ Chaim Dovid HaLevi (1924-1998) prohibits purchasing cigarettes for others,
even parents! R’ Gershon Edelstein, current Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovitch, remarked
that a Rebbi or Maggid Shiur who smokes cannot
set a proper example for his students and shouldn’t be teaching.
It
is related that Dayan Yisrael Yaakov Fischer[18]
(1928-2003), who permitted smoking year-round (including Yom Tov), at the end
of his life, when he was dying of lung cancer and the doctor said he has about
a month to live, gathered ten men together to publicize in his name that
smoking is truly unequivocally forbidden.[19]
R’ Shach (1899-2001) who was
a heavy smoker stopped smoking immediately when informed by a physician that
the practice was dangerous. Similarly,
it is also said R’ Yaakov Kamenetsky (1891-1986) as well as R’ Leib Bakst (1915-2003)
quit ‘cold turkey’ after doctors personally explained to them the health risks
of smoking.[20]
R’ Shlomo Zalman Aurbach (1910-1995)
also stopped smoking when he learned that tobacco causes the infamous sickness.
R’ Shlomo Zalman called on smokers to stop and for those who continued not to
do so in public where others could inhale the smoke. R’ Shlomo Zalman’s
proclamation was signed by R’ Elyashiv, R’ Aharon Leib Shteinman, R’ Nissim
Karelitz and others.
According to a recent study,
smoking kills two-thirds of smokers.[21]
Cigarette smoking is
responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States alone- including more than 41,000 deaths
resulting from secondhand smoke exposure.[22]
This is about 1,300 deaths every
day. Research has shown that each cigarette makes the smoker die 11
minutes earlier. Smokers lose an average of 13-14.5 years of life. People who
consistently smoked an average of less than one cigarette per day over their
lifetime had a 64% higher risk of earlier death than never-smokers. Those who
smoked between one and ten cigarettes a day had an 87% higher risk of earlier
death than never-smokers. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that
tobacco caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century.
[1] Sheailas Rav pg 92
[2] According to the
Jerusalem Center for Research- Medicine and Halacha (headed by Rabbi Yaakov
Weiner), R’ Elyashiv later even prohibited advertising for cigarettes!
[3] תשובות והנהגות, 4:115
[4] שו"ת באר משה 6:160:9
[5] שו"ת ציץ אליעזר 17:21, 22. This was from 1984. See also the Tzitz Eliezer 21:14 (from 1995) for an
interesting discussion on whether those who sell cigarettes and tobacco
products are considered to be actively violating prohibitions.
[6] R’ Moshe Feinstein (Igros Moshe, Yoreh Deah, 2:49.
Also see Choshen Mishpat 2:18, 76), in a letter dated
several months after the Surgeon General’s initial report (in 1964), wrote
that although it is certainly appropriate to abstain from smoking,
nevertheless, one cannot say that smoking is outright forbidden, as there are
many people that smoke. Therefore, smokers fit into the category of שמר פתאים ה'; Hashem
protects the simple (Tehillim 116:6. See Shabbos 129b, Yevamos 12b, 72a among
other places. This statement is raised by the Gemara to explain how certain
dangerous activities that have become common practice were not outright
forbidden.). He adds that especially since many Gedolim smoked, it is
impossible to say that such an act is truly forbidden. Recently, his son, R’
Dovid Feinstein was quoted as saying that with the current knowledge of the
harm smoking causes, it is obvious that if his father was still alive, he
would have absolutely prohibited smoking. R’ Moshe’s dispensation was only based on
the ‘fact’ that smoking endangered only a small percentage of smokers. In fact,
in a newly discovered and recently published Teshuva of R’ Moshe, dated Elul 5732 (1972), he
himself wrote that his famous lenient ruling was based on the facts as
they were known at the time (Kovetz Hamaor, volume 480,
Kislev-Teves 5778, pg 7). He added that if the reality would change and the
percentages of those proven harmed by smoking would increase, then certainly it
would be prohibited to smoke, at least the amount the doctors considered
harmful to one’s health.
[7] R’ Shlomo Zalman is
even quoted (Sefer Mishpat HaKesuva, 6:52:6 and
footnote 10, Kashrus Ha’Eidim,
pgs. 326-328) as holding that one who smokes while knowing the health risks
involved is פסול לעדות; invalid for
testimony.
[8] See also R’ Ovadia
Yosef in Halichos Olam 1, pgs. 265-266, 4, שו"ת
מנחת שלמה 2:58,6, Shevet
HaLevi 10:295, שו"ת
רבבות אפרים 3:487 and 8:586, תשובות והנהגות 1:159,
and 316, the Minchas Asher Haggada, Shaarei Teshuva 23.
[9] The Tzitz Eliezer
(15:39, 1, s.v. לאור) says since
smoking is deemed enough of a health risk that in every civilized country
cigarettes are exclusively sold with a warning printed on the package that it
damages health, smoking can no longer be classified under שמר פתאים ה'.
[10] Likutai Amarim, 13. See also the Chofetz Chaim in זכור למרים,
chapter 23, s.v. והנה נמצאים.
[11] The Dayan R’ Yaakov
Blau (1929-2013. He grew up in the home of the first Dushinsky Rebbe, who
raised him after his father died when he was a young child.), who was a heavy
smoker, attempted to cut down in his later years.
[12] שו"ת משנה הלכות 18:302. He was
also known as the Ungvarer Rav. He authored 18 volumes of responsa,
spanning over 50 years, entitled Mishna Halachos in addition to authoring some
25 other Sefarim. During World War II, he was incarcerated in
Auschwitz-Birkenau, and later in
Buchenwald. On June 2, 1945, he was evacuated by
train to France with 427 other former Buchenwald inmates ages 7 to 17- among
them Yisrael Meir Lau and Elie Wiesel. He immigrated to the United States in
1947.
[13] See Nedarim 8a
[14] The entire Jewish
nation- including those unborn- entered a covenant and took an oath at Har
Sinai to observe all the Torah’s precepts.
[15] ונשמרתם
מאד לנפשתיכם and השמר לך
ושמר נפשך מאד (Devarim 4:15, 4:9), although seemingly not actually
referring to guarding one’s physical health but rather religious beliefs and
Torah learned, are still quoted as such, even by early authorities such as the
Rambam (Hilchos Rotzeach U’Shmiras HaNefesh 11:4), Maharsha (Brachos 32b, s.v. כתיב) and the Minchas Chinuch (Ki Seitzei, Mitzvah 546:11).
[16] Vayikra 19:14. The simple meaning of this is, “Don’t
place a stumbling block in front of a blind person.”
[17] 6:58. He was a Sefardi
Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yaffo.
[18] Dayan Fischer
who was a close student of R’ Isser Zalman Meltzer, was a leading Posek, Av Beis Din of the Eidah HaChareidis
and Rav of the Zichron Moshe neighborhood in Yerushalayim.
[19] תשובות והנהגות 3:354
[20] R’ Lord Immanuel
Jakobovits (1921-1999) would receive the latest volumes of the Tzitz Eliezer sent by the
author, R’ Waldenberg. When he saw that R’ Waldenberg categorically forbade smoking,
he stopped immediately. He reasoned that if he turned to R’ Waldenberg for life
and death questions, then
he must also accept his decisions regarding smoking.
[21] Smoking causes cancer,
heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
[22] More than 16 million
Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking.
