Rabbi Yigal Cohen quits smoking - for $100,000

Rabbi Yigal Cohen, who heads the Yabia Omer institutions, quit smoking after over thirty years - and received a large donation to his institutions, Kikar Hashabbat reported.

In a recent class, Rabbi Cohen said, "I have been smoking for 32 years, to my great sorrow. A person came to me from America, and said to me, 'If you quit smoking, I'll give you $100,000.' The truth is a man went out with me, and said to me, 'What do you think of quitting smoking one day?' I told him, 'I've been addicted for 32 years, since I was in yeshiva, unfortunately.'"

"I'm telling you this, not in order that you should learn from me, but the opposite. Thank G-d, I succeeded in quitting. I told him: 'One day a year, I take upon myself to quit smoking.' He came to me and said, 'You have $100,000.' I thought he wanted to give me $100,000, and I said, 'Praise be to G-d! We'll marry off our kids.'

"But he told me, 'Not for you, for Yabia Omer I'm giving $100,000.' But that's also good, thank G-d. This person changed something in my head. He's a very prominent businessman, he's also not a sucker. He changed something in my head and told me, 'You have done so much in your life, that if you want - you can beat this also.'

"Thank G-d, I quit after 32 years. So with G-d's help, anyone who wants to get himself out of this - if I, after 32 years, thank G-d have succeeded in quitting - then anyone can quit," he concluded.