Last week we talked about smoking cigarettes and we explained the Halakhic principle of avoiding anything harmful to our health (see link). Technically speaking, these are not ritual-related laws (Kashrut) but they are still part of Jewish Law, specifically under the category of vensihmartem m-eod lenafshotekhem (debarim 4,15) You should 'strictly' (me-od) watch your life' (=your health).
Maimonides (1135-1206), who besides being a rabbi was also a famous physician, wrote a chapter on Health Guidelines in his Mishne Torah (hilkhot de'ot, chapter 4). He clarifies explicitly (H. 21) that the principles exposed in that chapter are pertinent for a healthy individual, not for a sick person, who obviously requires a customize diet and medical treatment.
In other words, Maimonides anticipated the modern concept of 'preventive medicine' by eight centuries. In this interesting chapter Maimonides deals with: diet, exercises, sleeping habits, sexual life , hygiene, and other practices common in his time.
A few selected illustrations of his advices on diet:
"...Maintaining a healthy and sound body is among the ways of God... one must avoid that which harms the body and accustom himself to that which is healthful and helps the body becomes stronger".
".. a person should not eat until his stomach is full. He should stop eating approximately at three quarters of full satisfaction"
"...overeating (akhila gasa) is like poison to anyone's body and it is the main cause of all illness".
"Don't eat unless you're hungry".
Is smoking Kosher?
The Jewish people are commanded in the Torah to take care of their physical well being. The Torah (Debarim 4:9,15) states explicitly that one must keep a close watch over his health. Maimonides (Hilchot Rotseach 11:5 - 6) writes that one who engages in unhealthy activities and declares that he has the right to do as he wishes to his own body deserves a punishment. The Talmud (Hullin 9a) states explicitly that one must treat dangerous activities with greater stringency than one would treat Halakhically prohibited activities.
In modern days, most (if not all) Orthodox rabbis consider smoking cigarettes as a Halakhically forbidden activity.
Why?
Cigarette smoking causes a variety of life-threatening diseases, including lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. An estimated 400,000 deaths each year in the U.S. are caused directly by cigarette smoking. Smoking is responsible for changes in all parts of the body, including the digestive system. This fact can have serious consequences because it is the digestive system that converts foods into the nutrients the body needs to live.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef points out that just as we rely on the wisdom of doctors to permit doing otherwise forbidden activities on Shabbat or eating on Yom Kippur, so too we are required to listen to them and distance ourselves from those activities they deem dangerous, like smoking.
Click here to read what contemporary Rabbis say about Smoking?
