The Rebbe Who Quit Smoking in a Single Moment

Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam’s health was deteriorating, and he decided to consult one of the leading physicians in Vienna, hoping the doctor would be the right messenger to bring healing to his ailments.

While waiting outside the doctor’s office, the Rebbe lit an expensive, rare cigar that he had received as a gift from his chassidim.

Noticing him smoking, the doctor turned to him and said plainly: “You should know that smoking is harmful to your health.”

Upon hearing these words, the Rebbe immediately placed the cigar in a nearby ashtray.

“I Am Obligated by the Torah”

When the appointment ended and the Rebbe left the room, the doctor called out after him: “Rabbi, you forgot your cigar!”

“I do not smoke,” the Rebbe replied at once. “From the moment I heard that smoking is harmful to one’s health, I stopped smoking. I am bound by the mitzvah, ‘You shall greatly guard your souls’ (Devarim 4:15). I will no longer put a cigar in my mouth.”

The doctor stood astonished, unable to believe that a person could abandon a habit of many years in a single instant, simply because he learned that it contradicted one commandment of the Torah.

About Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam

Ben Zion Halberstam of Bobov was born in 1874 (5634) to his father, Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam. He initially served as Rosh Yeshiva in Vishnitz, and in 1905 (5665) succeeded his father as the Bobover Rebbe.

In Galicia, he established the “Etz Chaim” network of yeshivot, which eventually included approximately fifty institutions.

He was murdered al kiddush Hashem on the 4th of Av, 5701 (1941), sanctifying God’s Name during the Holocaust.