Is Smoking a Sin?

The FDA has announced that packages of cigarettes will have to include one of nine graphic images that show the harmful effects of smoking. Is that good or bad? What does Jewish law say about smoking? Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, Director of Jewish Treats' parent organization, the National Jewish Outreach Program, offers a short history of the Jewish attitude toward smoking, as well as his own opinions.

Deuteronomy 4:15 says that you should take care of your body and you shouldn't do anything to harm it. If that's the case, then why aren't rabbis saying that smoking is not kosher? One reason is this: One of the great decisers of Jewish law in the last generation was Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. Smoking was very popular in the '40s, '50s and '60s. Almost everyone smoked, including many rabbis. Then the United States Surgeon General came out against it, informing people that smoking causes cancer and other health problems. When Rabbi Feinstein was asked if Jews can smoke, he basically said no, but then added "You're not allowed to decree something on the community that the community is not going to hold." Because of this, Rabbi Feinstein refused to write a decree telling Jews that is is prohibited, even though he acknowledged that is it indeed harmful and one should not smoke cigarettes. Because of Rabbi Feinstein's stature, other rabbis were afraid to oppose him, even as the times had changed.



Rabbi Buchwald believes that over the next few years, the mood will shift and we will see rabbis taking a strong stand against smoking. He believes that the FDA is doing a job for us. When we weren't out there enforcing the laws of the Torah, the FDA did. He hopes that ultimately everyone will give up smoking cigarettes.

Smokeout
As the world changes, the modern day sages must often reevaluate the application of Jewish law in order to correlate it with the findings of contemporary medicine. One of the best examples of this challenge is cigarette smoking. Originally, smoking was assumed to have many health benefits. After all, smokers seemed to feel refreshed and relaxed, a beneficial physical side effect. From a Torah perspective, the only apparent problem with smoking was lighting a cigarette on Shabbat (prohibited).

Toward the middle of the 20th century, however, scientists and doctors came to better understand the true effects of the cigarette. It is now common knowledge that smoking has many negative effects on the body. By the time this information became common knowledge, however, smoking was a common vice, and rabbinic authorities understood that an outright ban on smoking would be too difficult to enforce (especially given the addictive nature of nicotine).

When the issue of cigarette smoking was raised with Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, regarded as one of the greatest Jewish legal minds of the 20th century, he strongly discouraged the habit but did not outlaw it outright.* His primary source against prohibiting smoking totally was from Yebamot 72a: "Since many people are in the habit of disregarding these precautions, 'The Lord preserves the simple' (Psalms 116:6). This statement has always been understood that there are some dangerous practices that are not prohibited because it is already the custom of too many people, but that those who are wise should certainly abstain from this behavior. Today, however, there are many strong calls to ban smoking entirely.

*This ruling was given in 1981. He included in his ruling a prohibition against starting to smoke.

One of the subcategories of the mitzvah of pikuach nefesh (saving a person's life) is taking care of one's own health. In this vein, the National Jewish Outreach Program has been involved in a campaign encouraging people not to smoke on Shabbat. While intended for smokers, the recommendations apply to all.