Jewish law and history on smoking

Halakha (Jewish law) addresses three main topics applicable to tobacco and cigarette smoking from the early modern period to the present day: the regulation of smoking on days of special Jewish significance, the debate over prohibition of smoking, per se, with regard to individual Jews, and the general environmental concerns (e.g. second-hand smoking).

Until the late 20th century, the use of tobacco for smoking and in the form of snuff was common among Jews. It is asserted that a Jew named Luis de Torres, who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his expedition in 1492, settled in Cuba, learned the use of tobacco, and introduced it into Europe. From this time Jews were connected with the trade in tobacco, one of the most important in early American history (M. J. Kohler, in Publ. Am. Jew. Hist. Soc. x. 52)

Recently, some rabbis considered smoking an improper, lightheaded activity for students (Stone 302).

Rabbis also debated the use of tobacco under traditional Jewish law, including varying aspects of its permissibility on the Sabbath, chagim (Jewish holy days), fast-days, and whether a special "smoking" berakhah (blessing) might be needed. Among the early sources are the Keneset ha-Gedolah ("Men of the Great Assembly") of Rabbi Hayyim Benveniste (1603–73) and the Magen Avraham ("Shield of Abraham") of Avraham Gombiner (1635–83). Gombiner referred to the "drinking of tabak [tobacco] through a pipe by drawing the smoke into the mouth and discharging it," and sayid that a smoker should first make a blessing over smoking as a type of refreshment. Believing that tobacco was soaked in beer — a source of chametz, or leaven — he banned smoking during Passover. (ib. 343). Benveniste expressed himself very forcibly against smoking tutun (tobacco) on the Ninth of Av, and reportedly excommunicated a Jew who smoked on that solemn fast-day (Keneset ha-Gedolah, to Orach Chayim, 551, 21). Benveniste “points out the inconsistency of those authorities who permit smoking on holy days because it is a 'necessity,' a 'means of sustaining life,' and who allow it on fast-days because smoke has no 'substance' like food. In Benveniste's opinion, smoking was prohibited on holy days; he quoted Rabbi Joseph Escapa as coinciding in this view, though he thought it unwise to enforce a generally accepted law.”

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