Judaism

In the Bible, the Book of Numbers proclaims that Nazirites, who vowed to deny themselves wine and liquor for a specified time in special service to God, had to bring a sin offering at the end of their abstinence. Thus the Talmudic rabbis established that it is a sin to deny oneself pleasures that God has provided and not prohibited. As early as the second century c.e., then, the rabbis saw such vows not as an act of piety, but rather as an act of ingratitude for God's gifts and maybe even haughtiness in trying to be holier than others. Consequently the discovery of tobacco and its pleasures in the seventeenth century was, for Jews, another manifestation of God's goodness. While many Christian clergymen of that time condemned smoking as offering incense to Satan, the rabbis did not see it in those theological terms but rather simply as a new mode God had given people to enjoy life.

Thus by the seventeenth century smoking was widespread among Jews, and snuff taking was common by the eighteenth century. Scholars believe that women smoked as much as men did in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Smoking was permitted in the study hall (and in the twenty-first century many yeshiva students smoke while studying), but it was forbidden in the synagogue, just as eating was.

Ritualistic Concerns

For most of history, the only religious issues that Jews had with tobacco were ritual in nature. Since tobacco is a plant, there were no concerns about violating the Jewish dietary laws governing the eating of fish and animals as outlined in Leviticus, chapter 11, and Deuteronomy, chapter 14. The problems rather centered on whether tobacco violated the laws of the holy days. Because lighting or extinguishing a fire is prohibited on the Sabbath (from eighteen minutes before sunset on Friday until three stars appear on Saturday evening) and the Day of Atonement, smoking was clearly forbidden on these holy days. On the other biblical holy days (Passover, for example), though, using fire from an already-burning source to light another is permitted, but extinguishing a fire is not. The question, then, was whether one might light a cigarette or cigar that way on the holy day, even though that would thereby inevitably cause it to go out when one had finished smoking it. Most rabbis ruled that one may indeed smoke.

Another question was whether one may smoke on the fast of the Ninth of Av, the day of mourning the destruction of the First and Second Temples and other national Jewish tragedies, and on the other minor fasts of the Jewish year. One issue was whether it was appropriate to indulge in the enjoyment of smoking on a fast day, when one was to avoid sexual relations and bathing, among other activities, to afflict oneself as part of the expression of mourning on the fast. The other issue was the legal status of smoke: Is it a "means of sustaining life," like food, and therefore to be prohibited on the fast, or no "substance" and therefore permissible? Here again the permissive opinion won the day, but many religious Jews nevertheless refrain from smoking on fast days, for even if it satisfies the letter of the law, it violates its spirit. In addition, historically the concern arose about sullying the reputation of Jews; thus the seventeenth-century Turkish rabbi Hayyim Benveniste declared that the name of God is desecrated when the Muslims observe Jews smoking on their fast days when Islam prohibits smoking on its fasts.

Finally, rabbis asked whether one must pronounce a blessing of God before smoking, as one must do before enjoying food. The view that smoke is not a substance led to the conclusion that no blessing was necessary or appropriate.

From Tobacco Industry to Public Health

Jews were heavily involved in the manufacture and sale of tobacco in both Europe and America. So, for example, of 110 tobacco factories in the Pale of Settlement (in western Russia) in 1897, 83 were owned by Jews, and over 80 percent of the workers were Jewish. In the United States, except for the garment industry, the largest concentration of poor, immigrant Jewish workers in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century was working for cigar and cigarette factories. This group participated actively in the nascent labor union movement in the United States, organized by Samuel Gompers in the 1870s and 1880s. In the next generation, Jews often served as tobacco distributors, and while cigarette making was taken over by large companies, as late as 1935 Jews owned three of the four major cigar manufacturing businesses.

These demographics changed with the discovery of the harmful effects of smoking on health. In Judaism, God owns everything, including the human body, and the religion requires that people take care of themselves during their lifetime, which includes the duty to avoid harming themselves.

Because smoking has been shown beyond any doubt to harm human health in many ways, rabbinic rulings in the Conservative and Reform movements as early as the 1970s prohibited smoking, at least in public. Some Orthodox rabbis permit, and some prohibit, smoking as a matter of law, but even the former urge that Jews refrain from smoking as an unwise activity. The dangers of secondhand smoke have led the Rabbinical Assembly, the association of Conservative rabbis, to ban smoking in its public meetings and to call on governmental officials to ban smoking in all public places.

Moreover, Jewish legal sources would permit society to limit its assistance to those who repeatedly endanger themselves. In recent decades rabbinic authorities have specifically included in this those who engage in practices known to constitute major health risks such as smoking, for individuals must take responsibility for the consequences of their behavior, especially after being duly warned through public education or their own sickness. For example, smokers cannot rightfully expect the community to pay for repeated lung transplants; indeed, in light of the shortage of organs for transplant, the cost of the procedure, and the poor prognosis for smokers to benefit significantly from such transplants, Jewish law, like current medical practice, would deny smokers even one transplant. Thus the fundamental Jewish concern for preserving life and health, coupled with current medical findings about the dangers of smoking, has led to a complete reversal in the earlier Jewish endorsement of the use and manufacture of smoking materials.

See Also Christianity; Islam; Prohibitions; Regulation of Tobacco Products in the United States; Social and Cultural Uses.

? ELLIOT N. DORFF

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dorff, Elliot N. Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998.

Dorff, Elliot N., and Arthur Rosett. A Living Tree: The Roots and Growth of Jewish Law. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.

Herring, Basil F. Jewish Ethics and Halakhah for Our Time: Sources and Commentary. New York: Ktav Pub. House and Yeshiva University Press, 1984.

snuff a form of powdered tobacco, usually flavored, either sniffed into the nose or "dipped," packed between cheek and gum. Snuff was popular in the eighteenth century but had faded to obscurity by the twentieth century.

yeshiva a Jewish religious school.