IS THE FOOD YOU CURRENTLY HOLD IN

YOUR HAND AN ISSUR DORAYSA?

FIND OUT IN THIS PACKET

THE ISSUES WITH FAST FOOD

1. Obesity.
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may
have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health
problems.[1][2] Body mass index (BMI), a measurement which comparesweight and height, defines
people as overweight (pre-obese) if their BMI is between 25 and 30 kg/m2, and obese when it is
greater than 30 kg/m2.[3]
Obesity increases the likelihood of various diseases, particularly heart disease, type 2
diabetes, breathing difficulties during sleep, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.[2]Obesity is
most commonly caused by a combination of excessive food energy intake, lack of physical
activity, and genetic susceptibility, although a few cases are caused primarily
by genes, endocrine disorders, medications or psychiatric illness. Evidence to support the view
that some obese people eat little yet gain weight due to a slow metabolism is limited; on average
obese people have a greater energy expenditure than their thin counterparts due to the energy
required to maintain an increased body mass.

http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter
/stories/2011/03/religious-young-adultsobese.html
Religious Young Adults Become Obese By
Middle Age
Researchers say cause may be unhealthy food at religious activities

CHICAGO --- Could it be the potato salad? Young adults who frequently attend religious activities are 50
percent more likely to become obese by middle age as young adults with no religious involvement,
according to new Northwestern Medicine research. This is the first longitudinal study to examine the
development of obesity in people with various degrees of religious involvement.
We dont know why frequent religious participation is associated with development of obesity, but the
upshot is these findings highlight a group that could benefit from targeted efforts at obesity prevention, said
Matthew Feinstein, the studys lead investigator and a fourth-year student at Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine. Its
possible that getting together once a week and associating good works and happiness with eating unhealthy
foods could lead to the development of habits that are associated with greater body weight and obesity.

2. Trans Fats
Trans fat is the common name for unsaturated fat with trans-isomer (E-isomer) fatty acid(s).
Because the term refers to the configuration of a double carbon-carbon bond, trans fats may
be monounsaturated orpolyunsaturated but never saturated.
No trans fats are essential fatty acids; indeed, the consumption of trans fats increases the risk
of coronary heart disease[1][2] by raising levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol and lowering levels of
"good" HDL cholesterol.[3]Health authorities worldwide recommend that consumption of trans fat
be reduced to trace amounts. Trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils are more harmful than
naturally occurring oils.

THE SOURCES


:
Just watch yourself and watch your soul very much, lest you forget the things your
eyes say, lest they veer from your heart, all the days of your life, and tell them to your
/children and childrens children


And you shall watch yourselves very well, for you did not see any image on the day
that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire.

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The body being healthy is of the ways of the Lord, for it is impossible to understand or
know the knowledge of the Creator while unwell. Therefore, one should keep away from
things which destroy the body, and accustom oneself to healthy and curing matters
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There are some foods which are exceedingly bad, and it is fitting never to eat them. Such
foods include big fish, old salted cheese, morels, truffles, old slated meat, wine straight
from the wine-press, and a cooked food which has been allowed to give off a smell.
Similarly, any food which has a bad smell or which is bitter is like poison to the body.
There are some bad foods which are not as bad as those already mentioned. Therefore, it
is fitting to eat only a little of them, and even then only rarely, and also to accustom
oneself not to having with, or as, one's food things such as big fish, cheese, milk which is
more than twenty-four hours old, the meat of big oxen or big goats, broad beans, lentils,
sappir, barley bread, matzah, cabbage, hay, onions, garlic, mustard and radish - all these
are bad foods. It is only fitting to eat a little of them and in the winter, but in the summer
one should not eat of them at all. It is not fitting to eat broad beans or lentils in both the
summer and the winter, and one should eat gourds only in the winter.
1. What is the purpose of being healthy, according to the Rambam?
2. What does the Rambam say about unhealthy food? Does he outright forbid it? What
does he do? (Be Lomdish!)
3. Is this halacha? If not, what is it?
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.
Whether it is a roof or anything that is dangerous, that is possible for a person to stumble
over and die, whether he has a well, or a cistern in his courtyard, whether it has water or
does not have water, he is obligated to make a fence higher than ten tefachim, or to make
a cover for it so that somebody should not fall and die. And so too any obstacle that has a
danger to life, it is a positive mitzvah to remove it and to guard yourselves from it and be
very careful of it, as it says, be careful and guard your souls. And if he does not remove
it, and leaves obstacles that lead to danger, he has nullified a positive command and
transgressed Do not place blood in your home.
Many things were forbidden by the sages because of danger to life, and anyone that
transgresses them and says I am just endangering myself, what do others care? or Im
not careful about this, you give him lashes.

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Rema: And also you should be careful from (eating) all things that lead to danger,
because items of danger are more strict than forbidden items, and there is more reason for
concern in a case of a doubt of danger than there is in a case of doubt of prohibition.
1. What concept has the Rambam brought here? How did the Rema apply it?
2. Could this apply to eating unhealthy food, taking into account what we know
scientifically?
3. Would eating unhealthy food be an issur dorayta? If not, what kind of issur would this
be? Is the cover to this source sheet a shameless lie?

The Defense


The LORD preserveth the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me.

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Three [categories of] women may use an absorbent in their marital intercourse (as a
contraceptive device): a minor, and an expectant and nursing mother. The minor,
because otherwise she might become pregnant and die. An expectant mother, because
otherwise she might cause her foetus to degenerate into a sandal (a aborted fetus shaped
like a sandal). A nursing mother, because otherwise she might have to wean her child
[prematurely] and this would result in his death. And what is [the age of such] a minor?
From the age of eleven years and one day to the age of twelve years and one day. One
who is under, or over this age must carry on her marital intercourse in a normal manner;
so R. Meir. But the Sages said: The one as well as the other carries on her marital
intercourse in a normal manner, and mercy will be vouchsafed from Heaven, for it
is said in the Scriptures, The Lord preserveth the simple

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Samuel also said: The correct time for bloodletting is on a Sunday Wednesday and
Friday, but not on Monday or Thursday, because a Master said: He who possesses
ancestral merit may let blood on Monday and Thursday, because the Heavenly Court and
the human court are alike then. Why not on Tuesday? Because the planet Mars rules at
even-numbered hours of the day. But on Friday too it rules at even-numbered hours?
Since the multitude are accustomed to it, the Lord preserveth the Simple
1. Leaving aside the obvious science-Torah problems (sandal shaped babies, bloodletting, astrology, etc), which are beyond the scope of this source sheet, according to the
sages view of science, were the things allowed in these two pieces dangerous? Why then,
were they allowed? Are there any differences between the two pieces reasonings?
2. What does this show us about the scope of the prohibition against doing dangerous
things?
3. Would these exceptions apply to fast food?
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Shut Avnei Nezer, Rav Avraham Borenstein, The Sochazover Rebbe

And (this concept of) Shomer Petayim Hashem, that she (a woman who wanted to use
contraception after being told by her doctor that pregnancy would threaten her life) is
(normally) obligated to rely upon, only applies to things that are a constant, ever-present
danger.and behold it is proven that in a place that the danger is not a constant everpresent danger (but rather, a specific, uncommon danger pointed out by a doctor), we
dont say shomer petayim hashem, and here too she is not required to endanger herself.
1. How does the Avnei Nezer limit the concept of Shomer Petayim Hashem?
2. If a doctor told you that eating fast food would kill you, how would the Avnei Nezer
apply the concept of Shomer Petayim Hashem?
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Shut Binyan Zion, Rav Yacov Ettlinger
It appears to my humble opinion, that the reason for the Rabbis (rule of Shomer Petayim
Hashem) is, even though we have a rule that nothing stands in the way of saving a life,
and saving a life does not follow the rule of majority of situations, this is specifically in
a case where there is a certain danger to a life in front of us, for example when a rock
falls on someone, then we are concerned even for the smallest chance that he is still alive
(in order to save him). But, if in this time, there is no danger to life, rather there is to be
concerned for a future danger, then we go after what will happen in the majority of
situations, like all issues of prohibition. For if this were not so, how could a person go in
a boat, or go into the desert? These are things that one must say thanks after being saved
from, so how is it possible to put yourself into that situation on purpose and transgress
And you shall guard your souls very much?!. This is only possible if we say that at the
time that he goes, there is a less than 50% chance of danger, and therefore we go after the
majority.
1. How has Rav Ettlinger defined the concept of Shomer Petayim Hashem?
2. How would this effect fast food? What would we need to establish in order to come to
a definite decision on that issue?

Smoking
A Possible Precedent?
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Shut Igros Moshe, Rav Moshe Feinstein
)On The Matter of Smoking Cigarettes, 7th Day Of Chanukah, 5764 (16th December, 1963
With this matter of smoking cigarettes, certainly there is a concern with starting to
smoke, because it is fitting to be careful about. But to say that it is forbidden because of
danger? Since many people smoke, we have a concept of Shomer Petayim Hashem, on
Shabbos 129b, and Niddah 31a. And specifically many gedolei torah from previous
generations and in our generation smoke. And automatically, even to those who are strict
because of danger, there is no prohibition of Lifnei Iver to give cigarettes to one who
smokes.
?1. How does Rav Moshe apply the concept of Shomer Petayim Hashem
2. This tshuva was written a couple of months before the Surgeon Generals report on the
?dangers of smoking. How did Rav Moshes lack of information affect his decision
3. If it ended up that all the many people who smoked in Rav Moshes time somehow
?ended up with lung diseases, would his decision have changed
Compare that to this ShuT by the Tzitz Eliezer, (Rav Eliezer Waldenberg) written in
1982:
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I am amazed and astounded, and real trembling grips me regarding the clear and in-depth
understanding, and the medical proofs, and the tangible proof that testifies like a hundred
witnesses that smoking cigarettes is like burning coals to the body, because it damages in
a very grave form the body of the smoker. And since smoking can actually cut life shor,
G-d forbid, and those who count and account count are astounded by the statistics that
prove every time, and color and point a finger to the grave dangers of smoking. And
along with this, the many who have fallen victim to this, many more than tens of
thousands of myriads of people in the world, and as a direct result they are hit with
diseases of the body and various limbs, specifically the breathing and seeing (goes on
with this for a bit).And so on and so forth, until the doctors say that smoking is the
number one killer of humans.
In light of this, it appears clear, beyond the shadow of a doubt, there is no room to say
(like many want to say) that since many people do it, it is allowed, like Chazal say in a
number of places. Because they only said this in places where it was not clear to them,
and reality hadnt shown the opposite, and in fact many people had done it and had
emerged okay. But, in a case like the one before us, in the past 20 years the investigations
of science and various medical fields has shown the astounding damages and many
dangers smoking leaves in its wake, and because of this many large and important
countries have enacted laws to make warning labels that say on every cigarette package
that the head doctor of the country warns smokers that smoking will endanger them and
damage them. And right now, I am reading a report from the US government, and just
this week the Surgeon General said that over 100,000 Americans die each year from lung
cancer caused by smoking, and that smoking is the number one cause of cancer in this
country, and that the most effective way to reduce ones risk of cancer is to stop smoking.
If so, then certainly, certainly, it is absurd to hide your eyes from all this and just claim
Shomer Petayim Hashem
1. How ridiculously well-informed is the Tzitz Eliezer? And what does this show us
about how we go about answering questions about things like smoking and fast food?
2. On what grounds does he reject Rav Moshes proof from Shomer Petayim Hashem?
To Sum Up
1. What is similar between the cases of smoking and the case of fast food?
2. Are there any differences between the two cases?
3. Can we draw any parallels between the two?
1. Is there a solid case for forbidding unhealthy food on halachic grounds? Why or why
not? What about trans fats?
2. Do recent scientific developments have any effect on the decision?

3. Did you enjoy your food? If you think there is a prohibition, can I have your share?

Enjoy ChavrutaFast 2011