Halacha: Can an aging forgetful leader be replaced? | Should you allow your daughter to go out with a boy who smokes or vapes?
Should you allow your daughter to go out with a boy who smokes or vapes?
Is a smoker Possul Lei’dus?
If your father asks you to buy him a pack of cigarettes are you allowed to listen?
When a president loses his sanity does he lose his staus as a president?
Would Halacha require an aging forgetful leader to step down?
If the population loses their trust in the president (or leader) can they Halachically oust him?
When a husband loses his sanity can his wife or children take away his business?
When a father loses his sanity can his children take from his money for their wedding expenses?
Shiur Details
Smoking - what would Reb Moshe say today?
Shiur Reference Material
19 Comments
Yehoshua Ducker
Zvi Herzig
Dear Reb Dovid Lichtenstein,
Publicizing the איסור of smoking
I had the privilege of being on Headlines in 2017 regarding smoking and Halacha.
I’ve publicized the attached ad featuring an overwhelming consensus of Gedolei HaPoskim prohibiting smoking. The venue I’ve used in recent weeks is the popular “שטיבל” bulletin board (posted through Charedi neighborhoods across Israel) at the rate of ~1,000 nis/week. I’d like to scale this up.
The overwhelming majority of Charedi smokers think that smoking is less than Asur, as shown in a recent Bar Ilan paper (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10943-024-02019-2), therefore something like this could to be a potentially high-return investment.
E-cigarettes
I’ve studied the primary research on e-cigarettes pretty deeply and thoroughly. I have published letters in medical journals, and have co-authored with some prominent experts in the field.
I believe that are a lifesaving smoking alternative and have been estimated to be at least 95% safer than cigarettes in three UK government reports, with a >99% reduction in carcinogenicity.
With all due respect to Dr. Zelefsky, this is not his primary field of expertise. For example, he notes that e-cigarettes can contain metals and formaldehyde. He is correct, but these are present at miniscule quantities.
I don’t think that the עקידה regarding a smaller vs greater עבירות is applicable here (this is saving their life, not just אפרושי מאיסורא), and the חזון איש says that there are cases where you will allow a small איסור even to a רבים to prevent a greater one. It all depends on the situation.
Shiur 365 Riddle
Maybe you could say that the answer is that if you don’t like the king you don’t really have the option of leaving Eretz Yisrael because you have a mitzva to stay there*, and if you don’t like the kohen gadol you definitely don’t have the option to open your own beis hamikdash and therefore it is necessary to have a mechanism to remove leaders from these two positions. But with regards to a rov, if you don’t like the rov you can simply vote with your feet and move so there is no need to remove them. And if the rov is really problematic sooner or later everyone will just move away from them without needing the machlokos of a recall.
Riddle Number 2
I have another question, why would these people be tamai in the first place, the yidden had been at Mt Sinai for a long time them and there would have been no need to move the bones
all the best,
*This idea that you don’t have the option to leave eretz yisroel is connected to a very interesting question on whether you say dina dimalchus dina applies in E”Y. Because if you say that the reason for dina dimalchus dina is because when you chose to live in a place you accept upon yourself to keep the rules, you could say that this does not apply in E”Y because you don’t choose to live in E”Y, this is your place and you have to live there. (this idea about dina dimalchus dina is not mine).
א- כדאי להעיר במה שהרמ”א עצמו מביא ענין זה שכה”ג מסתלק בפה באותו תשובה (תשו’ האחרון בשו”ת הרמ”א) של זכות הבן בירושת רבנות העיר
עיין בהגר”א שם (ומקור הדברים היא שו”ת הריב”ש) שנכלל בהלכה זו ב’ דברים וכ”א יש לה מקור לעצמו, א’ זכות ירושה ומקורו מהא דמצינו אצל מלך שזוכה גם לבנו, ב’ שאין מורידין הרב מגדלותו (כל שלא קצבו זמן תחילה), והמקור היא מהגמ’ ברכות כ”ח שמצינו שם מטעם מעלין בקדש מאן דלבש מדא, וגם ממס’ סנהדרין ה’ משום כבודו דרבה בר חנא לא נתן לרב רשות להתיר בכורות אע”פ שהיה גדול ממנו כיון שרבה בר חנא היה קודם לו בבבל,
באופן הנמצא המקור שאין הרב מסתלק יש לה מקור לעצמה אצל מנויים שהיו שייכים לרב ובעל הוראה,
[ואולי יש להטעים במה שיש דין מיוחד זה אצל רב לפי שעיקר גדלותו אינה מוכרח להיות ע”פ מינוי משא”כ מלך וכה”ג תלויים במינוי ע”י סנהדרין וכדומה, או שיש מקום להטעים שיש איזה עדיפות בשררה הבנויה על כתרה של תורה]
ב- באמת מצינו במושב זקנים שמשה נשא עצמות יוסף ע”פ מה שצדיקים אינם מטמאים, אבל דבריו תמוהים מהגמ’ סוכה, ויש מקום לומר דל”ש ענין צדיקים אינם מטמאים קודם מתן תורה ע”פ האור החיים ע”פ זאת חוקת התורה, ותלוי בכח התורה [ועד”ז לענין ציון רבי בנאה בקברי האבות]
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Related Shiurim
R’ Dovid –
When you asked Rabbi Fuerst for precedent for Rav MOshe changing his pesak if he were alive, he provided several examples of נשתנה הטבע to show how things can change over time. You then noted that here, it is not that nature has changed, only that we now have information that he did not have then, and Rabbi Feurst agreed with you. You did not follow up on this, but I would ask if this means that he holds that all instances of נשתנה הטבע are like this. Meaning, not that anything actually changed, but that the later generations have access to data that the earlier ones did not have, and stating נשתנה הטבע is just a polite way of saying that they were wrong and we now know better.
All the best