Will Israel Have a Smoke-Free Town?

It will if Rabbi Riskin of Efrat has anything to say about it. According to The Jerusalem Post, Rabbi Riskin is spending his free time trying to convince store owners and restaurants in Efrat to stop selling cigarettes on the grounds that it is against halakhah.

Sale of cigarettes is of course legal and definitely out of rabbinical jurisdiction. But Rabbi Riskin is convinced that he can affect change through persuasion. He claims to have already talked 5 store owners into removing cigarettes from their shelves.

The issue of smoking has been debated among rabbis for a good few years. But Rabbi Riskin’s campaign is different in two ways: First, he is not just issuing a rabbinic opinion but actually trying to enforce it. And secondly, he has declared that it is not only forbidden to smoke, it is also forbidden to “aid and abet” smokers by selling cigarettes.

Since Israel has the highest percentage of male smokers in the entire western world, it should be interesting to see whether Rabbi Riskin can rid one small town of cigarettes.

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