8 replies to this topic

[cynic]

At 4:30, R' Shmuel Kaminetzky states "Smoking is assur min HaTorah."
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[Diogenes The Cynic]

Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky is wrong.

[moe says]

Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky is wrong.

I didn't even bother watching it.

I know I'm just going to get upset.

[shteigher]

The vast majority of poskim these days pasken that it is ossur.
The Tzitz eliezer Rabbi eliezer waldenberg has a teshuva dating back quite a number of years saying that it is assur.

[Rentsy]

Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky is wrong.

Oh really?

[Diogenes The Cynic]

The vast majority of poskim these days pasken that it is ossur.
The Tzitz eliezer Rabbi eliezer waldenberg has a teshuva dating back quite a number of years saying that it is assur.

I tried watching it and gave up around the first third. Do the Chahamim of this generation make such videos so that we should lose all respect for them?

Smoking is not assur because a single cigarette doesn't produce any notable damage. If you say it does, it wold also be assur to go outside because cars are driving everywhere. Thats the long and short of it. But there are other factors.

One is that the statement isn't clarified (which is in of itself a problem) because you would then have to realize that now cigarettes are assur, along with cigars, hand-rolls,pipes, and hookah. If the premise of why they think smoking is assur is because its addictive, and damaging, and hookah smoking is neither then the premises do not support the conclusion. A person might say that although they didn't qualify their statements they meant compulsive cigarette smoking, but since they didn't specify such, they created a problem, and that problem is failing to be deliberate in judgment. A Talmud Chaham is not allowed to make ambiguous statements, because phrases like "smoking is assur" create problems.

Another issue is that now, everyone who smokes is sinning because the din on smoking changed. How does this improve anything? Rav Kaminetsky is sending people to gehenom with his decision. Some people say this is a good thing, but I disagree. This means that even if cigarette filters improve, because of the way halacha works, cigarettes will still be assur.

[Pinchas]

At 4:30, R' Shmuel Kaminetzky states "Smoking is assur min HaTorah."
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Was that the Bostoner ZT"L calling it "one of the worst averos a person can do?"

[cynic]

Yes