Is smoking an occassional cigar or cigarette, without inhaling, against halacha? (because you dont really end up being unhealthy this way).

1. Smoking is unquestionably unhealthy (proven and accepted – reluctantly, and only after fighting against the findings, even by the tobacco industry). It is unhealthy for a smoker, and that seems to me to place it in the category of forbidden according to halachah (and common sense) as one is not to do one’s self harm.

2. It is unhealthy for those in the vicinity of a smoker (due to ‘second hand smoke’), so even if you don’t inhale directly, you are still subjecting yourself to the many hundreds (or even thousands) of toxins contained in the smoke and particulate matter which remains suspended in the air around you, and on your clothing, skin, and hair, and all of which you can absorb other than through direct inhalation from the cigarette. Pipe and cigar smokers, as well as cigarette smokers, all increase the risks for themselves and others. Again, it seems to me to place smoking (and perhaps even being around smokers)  in the category of forbidden according to halachah (and common sense) as one is not to do one’s self harm. I would also say that if one is smoking in the vicinity of others, or where others will encounter the residue, one is compounding the offense by endangering those other persons.

3. Snuff users, tobacco chewers, and those who choose to hold a bit of tobacco in their mouth (all of whom don’t inhale any smoke at all), are still subject to significantly increased risks of cancer and other diseases through contact with the tobacco and the byproducts using it, chewing it, or holding it in the mouth produce. Although the types of diseases one risks differ somewhat from a typical smoker (less likelihood of lung cancer, for example, but much more of lip, throat, or tongue cancer), the increased health risk is clear and incontrovertible. Once more, it seems to me to place this behavior in the category of forbidden according to halachah (and common sense) as one is not to do one’s self harm.

1)  the possibility of addiction, which will pose a serious health risk

2)  the secondary smoke problem for those around you

3)  the social legitimization of smoking

I don’t know if there is valid science as to what triggers smoking addiction, or whether one can know that one is not susceptible, and as for the second issue, one can presumably smoke in a broad empty open space, an already smokefilled room, or else in a locked and filtered room, or perhaps get valid permission from those around you.  So the real issue is the third.

Here a little history is necessary.  Orthodox Halakhah did not tend to ban smoking until fairly recently.  The primary ground for permission, even after the initial Surgeon General’s Report, was the halakhic understanding of the Biblical phrase “Shomer petaim Hashem” (G-d is the guardian of fools) as allowing people to assume those physical risks which their society considers reasonable.  This shifted as smoking became less socially acceptable, and it became plausible to see those who continued to smoke as engaged in extraordinary and irrational activity.

In other words, Halakhah does not ban eating fatty and sugary desserts, or serving them at weddings, even though they are unhealthy, and I can’t tell you whether a single cigarette is more or less unhealthy than a giant dessert. 

However – if society were genuinely moving toward a significantly healthier but equally tasty diet, but with hesitations, and you encouraged the hesitation, I think you would be morally culpable.  By the same token, I think that our society is moving away from smoking, and that everyone who smokes in public retards that process, and runs the risk of encouraging someone else’s addiction.  For this reason, I strongly discourage even very occasional smoking, even by confirmed nonaddicts.