Two Years and 880,000 Deaths Later - Smoking is (still) a Sin - Rabbinical Council of America

Have the rabbis done anything more about this since we posted this last, a year ago?

So another 440,000 have died. Some effective ban!

440,000 people in the US die each year from cigarettes.

The US Surgeon General Reports:

... tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the United States, causing approximately 440,000 deaths each year and costing approximately $157 billion in annual health-related economic losses.

We ought to put a little more effort this year into our anti-smoking efforts in the US, in Israel and around the world.

What can you do? If you smoke - stop. And more. Ask all the smokers that you know to stop smoking.

Won't you please use your blogs to spread this message and to help save lives?

And yes the news now (7/5/2006) is that rabbis say that smoking is a sin.

JTA - Rabbinical committee bans smoking - (finally does something useful) - Breaking News:

A committee of the centrist Orthodox rabbinical organization said Jewish law is opposed to smoking.

The halachah committee of the Rabbinical Council of America said the decision is based on a combination of the value placed by Jewish sources on health and scientific findings on the dangers of tobacco products.

The decision calls on all Jews to avoid or quit smoking.

RCA Release -- Text of the Ban on Tobacco

Signatories on the ban:

This teshuvah is issued unanimously by the Va’ad Halacha of the RCA, whose members are Rabbi Yosef Adler, Rabbi Kenneth Auman, Rabbi Asher Bush (Chairman), Rabbi Daniel Feldman, Rabbi Tzvi Flaum, Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb, Rabbi Chaim Jachter, Rabbi Yaacov Lerner, and Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky.

It is issued with the haskamah of the following members of the Va’ad HaPoskim: Rabbi Dovid Cohen, Rabbi Michael Rosensweig, Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rabbi Gedalia Schwartz, and Rabbi Mordechai Willig.

Blockbuster Rabbi Movie Opens to Throngs

From the famed Yeshiva University PR Department comes news of a new film that is rocking the Modern Orthodox world. Blogs are abuzz with debates. Is this a "distortion" of the Rav's life as one disciple has been whispering?

Some naive viewers don't recognize the inherent heresy and uncleanness of using film - the same medium that brought to the world "I am Curious Yellow" and "Last Tango in Paris" - to present an account of the life of a sainted holy rabbi. Those are probably the same folks who innocently use the Internet to look up the weather - without caring that on another web page - lurking nearby - is the uncleanness of naked photographs. How sadly uninformed are the householders of this day and age.

But have no fear. This film is replete with the comments and insights of pure and wholesome rabbis.

NY Premiere Screening of Lonely Man of Faith Draws Capacity Crowd

Feb 5, 2007 -- Nathan Lamport Auditorium in Zysman Hall on the Wilf Campus was filled to capacity for New York premiere screening of Lonely Man of Faith: The Life and Legacy of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, a documentary about the renowned Talmud scholar and Rosh haYeshiva at Yeshiva University’s affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) from 1941 to 1985. Almost 1,100 people—including students, alumni, faculty, and friends—attended the event on Saturday night, Feb. 3.

The documentary was made by first-time New York City filmmaker Ethan Isenberg with the input and advice of many people connected with YU.

“Making this movie appealed to me because it shows the development of modern Orthodoxy and American Judaism and how we got to where we are today,” said Mr. Isenberg. “I was also fascinated by the Rav as a lonely individual, who prized independent thinking and creativity.”

Featuring historic footage and interviews with people who knew the famous rabbi, the documentary traces Rav Soloveitchik’s life from the small Byelorussian shtetl where his parents lived, to his family’s escape to Warsaw after the Communist revolution, to his studies in philosophy in pre-WWII Berlin, to his life in the United States.

The screening was followed by a conversation among four of the Rav’s students: Rabbi Kenneth Brander, Dean of the Center for the Jewish Future; Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of OU Kosher and rosh yeshiva at RIETS; Rabbi Hershel Schachter, rosh kollel at RIETS; and Rabbi Mayer Twersky, rosh yeshiva at RIETS. The rabbis discussed the legacy of the Rav as “a giant in Torah and a towering presence,” said Rabbi Twersky, the Rav’s grandson. Rabbi Genack posited that the Rav preserved Orthodoxy and was responsible for rebuilding American Jewry.

During his 45 years as head of RIETS, the Rav ordained some 2,000 rabbis—a distinction that no sage in Jewish history is believed to have attained.