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NEWS
Youths Urged Not to Smoke on Purim
by A. Cohen
"Many people started smoking on Purim under the excuse of
simchah, but later they were unable to quit," notes
the City of Bnei Brak's Education Department in a letter to
parents of talmidim throughout the city as part of a
comprehensive campaign to discourage smoking among youths.
Under the title, "Gedolei Yisroel Negged Ha'ishun" ("Gedolei
Yisroel Oppose Smoking"), the campaign notice quotes
gedolei Torah from the current and previous
generation, including Maran the Chofetz Chaim, which stated
that cigarette smoking harms both the body and the
neshomoh due to bitul Torah, causes losses in
terms of health, money and mitzvas, and that smokers cause
themselves bodily harm and transgress the mitzvah of
venishmartem lenafshoseichem. Maran the Chazon Ish
said smoking tobacco causes respiratory harm and coarsens the
lungs, therefore smokers should quit.
A call to youths signed by Maran HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv,
HaRav Aharon Leib Shteinman, HaRav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz,
HaRav Moshe Shmuel Shapira, HaRav Nissim Karelitz and HaRav
Shmuel Auerbach reads, "Please do not harm yourselves and
your surroundings by habituating yourselves to [smoking], for
our holy Torah is a Torah of life [that teaches us]
`vechay bohem,' and Hashem wants all of us to preserve
our health to allow us to serve Him. Therefore those who can
keep themselves and others from smoking must do so, and those
who have already acquired the habit must try to quit, and
certainly they must avoid smoking in a place where other
people are present."
Citing the Rambam (Hilchos Rotzei'ach Veshmiras Hanefesh) and
the Chasam Sofer, HaRav Shmuel Halevy Wosner, ravad of Bnei
Brak's Zichron Moshe neighborhood, states that starting to
smoke at a young age is clearly prohibited by halochoh, and
that the Torah fully obligates parents, teachers and
educators to prevent youths from acquiring the habit. He goes
on to write that he who has already grown accustomed to
smoking must make every effort, for the sake of his future,
to gradually refrain from smoking and should definitely not
smoke in public places. Therefore whoever can avoid helping
others to smoke must do so according to our holy Torah.
HaRav Ben Tzion Abba Shaul zt"l also called on the
young to avoid smoking since physicians hold it harms health
and is liable to pose a danger. He, too, ruled that smokers
must leave a room where there are people who are bothered by
the smoke.
Recently HaRav Yechezkel Escheyik, ne'eman beiso of
Maran HaRav Shach zt"l, published a booklet entitled
"Chaim Bri'im Kahalochoh" on preserving one's health
according to the Torah and established medical knowledge. The
publication discusses the halachic approach to the duty to
preserve one's bodily health and provides general
guidelines.
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