Halacha and Smokers' Rights

I would like to address an issue that is not thought about much and when it is, people tend to think very little of it. I am talking about smokers' rights. I am not out to defend the practice in halakha—it is at best usser <proscribe d > to take up and usser aval putter <sinful but exempted> to continue once addicted. This is already known. I am not out to defend it from the standpoints of medicine or common sense, either. It is mazik <damaging>. This is already known. In fact, I am not out to defend it at all. Rather I am out to condemn the treatment that many smokers often receive at the hands of some of their non-smoking counterparts. Smokers are constantly berated for their habit and it helps no one.

At least three methods of reasoning facilitate the non-smokers' condemnation of the smoker. 1. Well-intentioned, if unhelpful, tochochoh <rebuke>. (This is innocent enough but difficult to understand. In most cases, the actor rarely gi ves tochochoh in other areas of halakha quite so readily and there are plenty of areas just as deserving.) 2. Defense of his air space or the world's (This is often hypocrisy as the actor rarely concerns himself overly much with other envi ronmental issues and usually abuses his health himself.) 3. The sheer pleasure of giving someone a hard time (This is all too common and often disguised by more altruistic motives.)

1. They claim that they are enlightening us about the dangers of smoking but no smoker is unaware of the risks we face. They call it "positive peer pressure" but it is ineffective and only serves to alienate and make hostile the smoker. Some will tainoh , "If 1,000 warnings weren't enough maybe 2,000 will be!" We have already received more than 3,000 and repetition is not the answer. I assure you, the constant hoopla in the news is more than adequate warning. Their actions might be accepta ble if they were genuinely pikuach nefesh, but they are not. I have never met a smoker who quit in order to end torment at the hands of his peers. I am not talking about the borderline, sometimes or closet smoker but the real deal. There is a ch emical addiction involved here and I am afraid it is just not that simple. If you do not smoke then you do not know how it feels. Further, different people react differently to nicotine. Some can smoke and not become addicted. Everyone's system is dif ferent. Perhaps I should not have begun to smoke, but now that I have it has become a different story altogether. Do not be too quick to judge that either. Not everyone has had such an easy time of things and people react to stress in different ways. Personally, I did not become aware of the halakhic ramifications until after it was already too late. I would like to see the genuinely concerned bochur apply half as much zrizus to rebuking mechalelei shmiras negioh <boys who are physically affectionate with their girlfriends outside of marriage>. While I am whittling away days in olom hazeh, they are forfeiting an eternity in olom haboh. That is also a form of suicidal behavior. However, we do not see that happen. Boys will eat a meal without vassing or bentshing and not receive a word of tochochoh. Let someone light up a cigarette and you'd think he was single-handedly keeping us all from the geuloh! Moreover smoking is o ne of the few vices that a non-smoking frum boy can "get away with" because it is a taivoh that he does not possess! He would not feel nearly so comfortable or confident speaking out against masturbation, for example, because it is a battle he must wage daily. However, it is easy to judge someone grappling with a situation that you yourself have never encountered and might never encounter. There is a double standard here. The would-be environmentalist is almost always a phony. I do not se e him abstain from using air conditioning and automobiles. He eats beef that supports cattle ranching which deforests the earth and depletes the ozone. He litters, wastes food and money, and does not recycle. He pollutes his own body with caffeine (the heart is overburdened), white sugar (the pancreas is overworked), dairy (high cholesterol), and meat (growth hormones and antibiotics). He despoils nature and his own body in many and varied ways. There is a double standard here. If he cares only about immediate second-hand smoke, please be advised that this is almost always within his power to avoid without infringing on the rights of others. Smoking today is effectively banned indoors. I do not condone smoking where you have a captive audience. To force someone to breathe my smoke would be wrong. The public domain however, is another matter. If someone standing next to you fails to bathe, launder his clothes, use deodorant or mouthwash, it is incumbent upon you to move away. How much the more s o if you fear his stink might harm you! Sufferers of cold and flu are contagious and not forbidden from public places; neither should smokers be. You can always avoid either of them. Rather than be inconvenienced however, many prefer just to bend others to their will. They can do so safely only with smokers because smokers are persona non grata today. There is a double standard here.

My magid shi'ur in Jerusalem was fond of saying, "There are no such things as posele tefilin. If they're posel, then they're not tefilin—they're black boxes." You cannot make a brochoh over them and you are not y otze the mitzvoh by wearing them. So too, "tochochoh" that is not lishmoh is not genuinely tochochoh, it is harassment. It is an undeniable and unfortunate component of human nature that we enjoy critiquing others. That i s because to do so implies that we are somehow better than the recipient is. It makes us feel good about ourselves. It is also an opportunity to relieve stress and tension by giving vent to pent-up frustrations and anxieties inside of us. This however, is grossly unfair to the victim of such maltreatment. He is made to serve as the proxy for our uncontrolled emotions. It is a case of misdirected anger. To make a rather extreme comparison, it is comparable to spousal abuse. A man goes to work and is yelled at by his boss but cannot answer back for fear of losing his job. He is yelled at by his client but cannot answer back for fear of losing the deal. By the time he gets home he is wound up tighter than an alarm clock. He finally gets a chance to yell at someone he thinks he can yell at—his wife. She does not deserve that. Neither do smokers deserve the misdirected anger they get. Students are put under sometimes enormous pressure by professors, administrators, rabbis, shadchanim, shi duchim, peers and prospective employers. They cannot answer back for fear of jeopardizing what they hope to gain from them. Along comes public enemy #1, the evil smoker. He is society's newest bad guy. Let's give him hell. That will let off some steam. All of this of course, occurs on a pre-conscious level and one might not even be aware that he is doing it, so subtle is it. Nonetheless, we cannot be your psychological punching bags! I wish I had the space allowance to get into how America has progressively demonized the smoker over the past few years, making it socially acceptable to revile him—but I do not. Suffice to say that we as a society have been conditioned by the media to regard smokers as second-class citizens. We have become a pe rsecuted minority. It is scapegoating and a very dangerous practice—almost as bad as smoking.

My father was niftor of lung cancer when I was only four. I am now twenty- five. I learned the lesson that smoking is dangerous early on and long before any of you. I have all the facts and will decide on a course of action using them. In th e meantime, I do not need you to inform me of the dangers involved. You will just be wasting your breath.

Tuviyah Breier
YC '01