For the first time ever, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is putting his kosher
supervision mark on Passover cigarettes – even though Yosef opposes
smoking and urges people who smoke to quit.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Certifies Kosher For Passoever Cigarettes
Shmarya Rosenberg • Failedmessiah.com
For the first time ever, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is putting his kosher supervision mark on Passover cigarettes – even though Yosef opposes smoking and urges people who smoke to quit.
“Doctors are against smoking; they say it causes lung cancer. Whoever can refrain from it, all the better; he should take every effort to keep away from it,” Yosef said two years ago.
Even so, his Badatz Beit Yosef kosher hechsher will appear on brands from Dubek Tobacco Products, certifying that they are free from hametz.
Why?
Because the intrepid rabbis working for the Sefardi haredi spiritual leader say they found that cigarettes are made with additives that can be considered actual food, and it is important to make sure that these additives do not contain hametz. This applies not only to the additives added to the tobacco itself, but to additives put in the paper and the filter. Even the glue used must be hametz-free according to Yosef and his rabbis.
It is forbidden by biblical and rabbinic law for a Jew to own or eat hametz during the entire Passover holiday.
“Although smoking is certainly a mistake, it is better that this error not be compounded by also breaking the laws of Passover which are extremely stringent,” a Badatz Beit Yosef spokesman told the Jerusalem Post.