Jewish ‘smokeout’ Urges Kicking the Habit on Shabbat

Jewish `smokeout’ urges kicking the habit on Shabbat. Call it a Great Jewish Smokeout, and one that comes every week.

The National Jewish Outreach Program is hitching a ride with the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, an annual nationwide event — slated this year for Nov. 21 — that urges smokers to quit.

For reasons of religious observance and health, the outreach program wants to convince Jewish smokers that they should resist cigarettes on Shabbat.

Jewish law forbids smoking on the day of rest. Some Orthodox rabbis have ruled in recent years that Jewish law also forbids smoking because it destroys the body.

The outreach program is a 9-year-old organization founded and directed by Orthodox Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, who has succeeded in convincing some 170,000 people to “turn Friday night into Shabbos” and learn basic Hebrew through his organization’s programs. The programs are held in synagogues of every denomination across the country.

Centered on the slogan “Give your lungs a religious experience,” ads placed by the outreach program in The New York Times and Jewish newspapers will feature an illustration of a cigarette surrounded by a large red circle with a slash across it, on which the word “Shabbat” is written.

The ad will include a phone number to call (1-888-SHABBAT) to obtain a free brochure listing a dozen things to do instead of lighting up.

The Shabbosdik suggestions include “eat three gourmet Shabbat meals (and actually taste the food)” and “air out your lungs — go for a nice long, leisurely walk.”

“By clearing out their lungs one day a week, we hope to show smokers the beauty of Shabbat — and ultimately of a life — without the burden of cigarette smoke,” Buchwald said.

“We think it will encourage them to focus on other aspects of the day, which are stimulating enough without the artificial ‘high’ of nicotine.”