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To flatbush27 it doesn’t say anywhere in the Torah that paying a credit card bill, trading a stock or reading Yeshiva World News is Asur. If you learn the Torah and it has an effect on you and it has an effect on your Derech Hachayim there are many things on the Internet that are not assur. A Yid has a neamnus that what he does is kosher you have no right to assume that someone using the Internet is doing things that are assur. If that was your outlook then you would assume your local butcher or restaurateur are serving you treif at kosher prices because it increases their income. Of course in both cases it is possible that someone is doing things which are not yosher. To make that your assumption about every yid or every butcher is very foolish. The Internet is not Assur, You can do Assur things on the Internet. Smoking is Assur. There is no way that it can ever be Muttar. There is no comparison between the two. Moreover when someone who learns the whole day walks outside the Beis Medrash wearing yeshivish garb and lights up a cigarette he is doing an issur in public. He is outright embarrassing the torah he just learned and the institution he just walked out of. To the Majority of people who see him he is causing a Chillul Hashem and a Bezayon Hatorah. If his smoking harms others he is oiver even more Issurim Bein Adam Lchavero, which Yom Kippur is not Mechaper for. That is an outright crystal clear Issur. When someone is on the Internet there is no Issur taking place. If a person can’t control himself it is possible that he will see something he shouldn’t and obviously that is assur and is something the Tzibur should be concerned about on a Klal level but the actual Maysa only affects that person. It is wrong for you to make the assumption that every Yid on the Internet spend his whole day looking at things he shouldn’t be looking at. When someone smokes and disregards the suffering of those around them his aveira is in the open. There is no doubt that he is killing himself both physically and spiritually as well as harming others. Any one that cares for the Kavod of Klal Yisrael has a chiyuv to tell them to STOP. Your trying to rationalize this clearly assur and harmful behavior just makes you an accomplice to their crime and therefore an enabler of their Chilul Hashem.

Since this post is about me I must reply to flatbush27. First of all I am not a bachur I am an Avrech. You shouldn’t make assumptions about people you don’t know. (Especially because all of your assumptions are wrong.) The same way I wouldn’t make an assumption about you since I don’t know you. There is no comparison between smoking and the Internet. I am not sure where you get the notion that there is a comparison. The Internet is Asur for the Tzibur in E’Y who have chosen to live a different lifestyle then their brethren in Chutz Laretz. Go to any halacha shiur for Amreicans in Israel and you will find many things which the poskim of Eretz Yisrael are very Machmir on, Which we Toshvei Chutz are not Machmir for, especially since we are mostly somech on the Psak of Rav Moshe. The facts are that most Avrechim in the Mir have American lines as well as Internet in their apartments. Obviously the Internet has both Maolos and Chasronos but every yid is a Neman is not yours or my place to judge what they are doing on the Internet. You don’t know where I come from. (thankfully not the Tri-State area) The Internet is my connection the outside world. I use it for News, Information, Paying Bills, and Investing. There is nowhere in the Torah Bksav or Bal Peh where it says those things are Asur. Smoking a Ciggarette is with out a doubt an issur Medoraisa of more then one lav. When you add on the effect of smoking in front of someone else it adds many more issurim.

In your original post on this thread, you are concerned that someones spirituality is more important then their physical health. If you actually read my original post and actually read what I said, you would have seen that the message is that smoking in front of others is the worst form of destroying your spirituality. Being Oiver inyanim in Bein Adam Lchavero and causing a Chillul Hashem and Bezayon Hatorah are issurim that Yom Kippur is not MECHAPER for. What kind of oinshim can you expect in Shamyim for causing harm to a fellow yid. There are many pitfalls that one can run into on the Internet and I would hope no one ever does, but at least that person has the chance to correct any mistake he did by doing Teshuva. Unfortunately some one who harms others does not have that opportunity unless the other person is Moichel him and he pays that person the necessary damages that the Torah teaches us the Nizak is owed. My whole point is that is Pashut that someone who learns Torah all day should have the common sense not to harm others while he is smoking. Out Torah is a Toras Chaim you can be the biggest Masmid in the world who unfortunately is addicted to smoking, which the Torah that you are learning says is assur. When someone see’s you on the street with your black hat or long payos, you are representing the Torah you are learning. By smoking in public you are demonstrating that you have learnt nothing and that those that you follow have taught you nothing. That is an outright Chillul Hashem as far as I am concerned. If that is not true then any self respecting smoker who thinks he is a Yarei Shamyim should please smoke in private where no one can see him and eventually try very hard to quit.

If you and others really care about others spirituality, then you should speak up about the Chilul Hashem of supposedly Yeshivish people smoking recklessly with out regard for any one else.