Smoking in Jewish Law - Postmodern halakha

Postmodern halakha

Concerns about smoking and health may be observed in Jewish approaches based on halakha, or Jewish law. For instance, when the link between smoking and health was still doubted, Rabbi Moses Feinstein wrote a responsum stating it was permitted, but inadvisable. Rabbi Feinstein wrote that since the risk of illness due to smoking is very small and it is a widespread practice, it is therefore permitted under the rabbinical principle: "The Lord protects the simple." However, he went on to state that starting to smoke would be prohibited because of the transgression of v'lo sasuru. Being that Rabbi Feinstein wrote that the basis of his permitting smoking is the distant risk involved, it has been argued that his ruling is definitely no longer applicable. Rabbi Aaron Kotler had ruled that smoking is a biblical transgression. Rabbinical rulings that more recently, rabbinic responsa tend to argue that smoking is prohibited, under Jewish law, as self-harm. Responsa to prohibit (or virtually prohibit) cigarette smoking have been issued by several Orthodox rabbis, including Waldenberg, and Hayim David HaLevi, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv) from 1973. Smoking is specifically prohibited by Solomon Freehof, other Reform rabbis, as well as rabbis in the Conservative movement in the U.S. and Israel.