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NEWS
Cigarettes May be Chometz and are Forbidden on Pesach

By Y. Shain

NoSmoking

The production process of cigarettes these days is more complex than in the past. The cigarettes found abroad contain, aside from tobacco, an assortment of raw materials which serve to lengthen their shelf life, preserve their taste and promote addiction. These include starches, glues and many other ingredients, in addition to the tobacco which may be immersed in alcohol, serving as a basic filler for all cigarettes.

These factors came to light in the process of a thorough inspection which was made on Erev Pesach 5774 by the celebrated chemist, Rabbi Eliyahu Licht, upon whom gedolei Yisrael implicitly trust in regard to everything dealing with halachic decisions pertinent to raw materials.

Chametz!!!
chametz

Following an intensive discussion involving the prominent poskim regarding the kashrus of cigarettes, Rabbi Licht studied the list of the ingredients of the cigarettes produced by various companies abroad, analyzed them professionally, and discovered to his surprise that a large portion of the components of the more popular cigarettes require kashrus supervision for Pesach since their ingredients are halachically fit for canine consumption and are therefore suspected of being chometz gomur. Thus, desisting from smoking on Pesach is not a mere stringency but constitutes a fulfillment of the prohibition of pure chometz.

The problem of smoking on Pesach has been a serious concern of our major poskim these past decades. Many rabbis and halachic authorities have dwelled on the problem from its halachic and practical aspects, arriving at the decision based on the Mogen Avrohom, the Maharam Shick and the Mishnah Berurah: cigarette smoking on Pesach is absolutely forbidden because of the chometz combined with the tobacco in the ingredients.

Foremost against smoking on Pesach was HaRav Eliashiv, whose opinion was decisive in prohibiting it categorically unless it was thoroughly examined and verified that said cigarettes do not contain any form of chometz, a decision testified by his disciples, HaRabbonim Efrati, Kook and Darzi. He additionally ruled that the G-d-fearing public should also desist from smoking on Erev Pesach from the end of the permissible time of eating chometz, due to the above misgiving. One must similarly sell the cigarettes in his possession to a goy since the argument that they are not fit for the consumption of a dog is not accurate.

NoSmoking2

HaRav Kook conveys what he heard from his master, the supreme halachic authority of his generation, HaRav Eliashiv, regarding the severe prohibition of smoking on Pesach. "Maran was inclined to be severe [in forbidding smoking] because the chometz itself was not destroyed but was merely combined with other ingredients that were not fit for canine consumption, which did not disqualify the end product from being unfit for a dog. Therefore it was advised not to smoke in Pesach unless there was a halachic supervision that there was no chometz included. He concluded, saying that those who are careful not to transgress be blessed!"

We note that the Torah leaders of the past generation forbade smoking on Pesach, In "Orchos Chaim" we find that the Steipler was very stringent in this, as was HaRav Y.B. Soloveitchik, Rosh Yeshivas Brisk. His disciple testified, "I once visited my master on Pesach with a cigarette in hand. He shuddered and said, `How do you dare come here on Pesach with something of whose contents you are ignorant?"

The author of "Palgei Tzvi" wrote that he asked HaRav Wosner about smoking on Pesach, and he said that those who are scrupulous in mitzvos never smoke on Pesach since cigarettes contain chometz.

 

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