Q:
Is there anything wrong with smoking only one cigarette a day?
A:
If you’ll give me a contract that it won’t be more than one cigarette, I’ll agree. But since you cannot give such a contract, it’s the beginning of a career of chain smoking. Eventually that’s what happens.
You have to know in all things there’s a principle; the first step is what’s most important. Someday I’ll talk about that bli neder. ‘The first step.’ You’re going someplace on the street and somebody starts walking with you and he says, “Come into this place with me,” and you walk in, it’s the beginning of a career. Either upward to Hakadosh Baruch Hu or down to Gehinom. It depends where he’s taking you. Just one step.
If you look back, you’ll see in your career somebody persuaded you to take one step in the right direction, and therefore the first cigarette is the beginning of the end.
(January 1989)
