Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 20:06:15 -0500 (EST)
From: Russell Hendel <  rhendel@mcs.drexel.edu>
Subject: Re: Smoking

QUESTION:
<  <  In V 5 # 36 someone  took another poster to to task on being
overly-harsh with criticism of smokers...The other posting
complained that smokers eg hurt people with their smoke. He
stated "In the Talmud (4th Seder Nezekim =
Damages) We see the various property damages...through accidental maiming
and murder in Sanhedrin...whether a man does damage b'shogeg
(unintentionally) or b'mayzid (intentionally), he has to pay for his
actions.>  >

ANSWER:
I would like to add to the legal points made above some non legal points. We
lose several million dollars a year from smoking (smoking in bed DOES cause
fires and destroy homes...and yes, Rachamim is right...a person who doses
off in bed and destroys someones house is, under Jewish law, liable to pay
the whole amount). Smoking in bed creates many unnecessary widows and
widowers every year. In short the biggest culprit is NOT lung cancer,
disease and health but rather the fires caused by smoking.

(Acknowledgement: The above is a condensation of the very first article I
ever wrote on smoking which I submitted to the Jewish press as a teenager
several decades a ago. Being a teenager my writing was quite angry (much
worse than Rachamim's). My brother, the now Honorable Neal Hendel of Beer
Sheva upon reading the heated manuscript (which accused smokers of creating
widows and destroying property) asked me 'Is your goal to get this
published?'--no one is ever going to publish something so full of anger.'
(My actual first article on smoking occured in Tradition in the late 70s).
But it shows how stupid smoking is that it took me several decades to calm
down and write what I just did above. I do hope this convinces people that
they must stop and yes...they must yell at others to stop...remember if
your apartment neighbor smokes then the whole house may get burnt
down...you are only protecting yourself)

As the other poster says at the end of his posts...'Be well--it is a mitzvah'

Russell Jay Hendel; Phd ASA;
Moderator Rashi is SImple; http://www.shamash.org/rashi/