Reply To: Teenager Caught Smoking Cigarettes – Any Advice?

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#916928
The little I know
Participant

Some of the suggestions here make sense, others do not. Mine won’t add much to either category. But it is worth re-examining our attitudes toward smoking. They are generally cavalier. And perhaps that is more of a root of the problem, rather than the influences of friends, rebellion, etc.

In other threads in the CR, the discussions about smoking included the overwhelming majority of rabbonim and poskim who stated unequivocally that smoking (yes, even the single cigarette) is a clear issur mid’oraysa. It is just as permissible as eating pork, and we need to be reacting to any smoking with the same revulsion as chazzer. But we don’t. Every shul has a spot for drinking coffee, and most have locations outdoors where smokers can puff away. Either before or after tefilloh where they will face HKB”H who said the behavior of smoking is a violation of His ratzon. I marvel at the azus needed to do this.

Our frum magazines and papers have addressed this subject occasionally, and I have yet to hear of a single Yid that stopped smoking due to the articles in our press. I wondered about a Kol Koreh with signatures. I doubt there would be an effect. Probably because the same Rov who signed such an issur would allow a smoker to daven for the amud and have an aliyah in his beis hamedrash, which might not be the case had this smoker been mechalel Shabbos or eaten chazzer. We do not have a community consistent approach. So all the proclamations with signatures are worthless.

If someone has an answer for the adult population, we might stand a chance at fashioning an approach for our youth. But meanwhile, our kids see nothing wrong with it, not medically, not religiously. Our rantings about such consequences fall on deaf ears. If we don’t take ourselves seriously, why should they?