Share Good News / Is A Jew Permitted To Smoke?

Seems like I skipped Friday, so today is a double portion…

Three couples with whom he was working were getting married.  All three met through dating services.  The parents of one couple thought it would be less ‘embarrassing’ for them, if they made up a story about how they met.  Telushkin’s point - why be ashamed of using a dating service if the result is a happy one?  Where is the ‘shame’ in meeting this way.  He compares this to the (then) recent arrival of Viagra, and what a big deal it was for Bob Dole to mention using it.  Sharing good news is important.  Until recently I may have suggested that the  Bob Dole info is TMI, but now I’m wondering if that is more my issue than his.  Anyway - mazal tov to the couples, and to Bob and Elizabeth Dole!

Yes, there is a fair amount of midrash on this topic.  Responsa - rabbinic answers to specific questions.  While back in ‘the olden days’, when smoking first became fashionable (18th Century) - smoking was considered both pleasurable and healthy, and so Jews were encouraged to do it.  Or, at least, not discouraged halachically.  But today, the science is different and opinions about smoking are different.  By today’s standards, those earlier rabbis were wrong.  But a point that Telushkin makes, which I think is very important, is not that early rabbis endorsed smoking - and so they were wrong.  Rather, it is not fair to judge yesterday’s judge’s by today’s standards.  By today’s standards, yesterday’s judges would like sadly naive, but it is not fair to judge that way.  We must look at yesterday’s interpretations through yesterday’s lenses.  THAT is a lesson that I believe certainly bears remembering.