txt/Halakhah/Kitzur Shulchan Arukh/English/Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, translated by Eli Rubin. .txt

Kitzur Shulchan Arukh
קיצור שלחן ערוך
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, translated by Eli Rubin. 
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4297877/jewish/Chapter-32-Rules-for-Guarding-Ones-Health.htm

Kitzur Shulchan Arukh



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Because the maintenance of a complete and healthy body is a G-dly path—since it is impossible to understand or apprehend any knowledge of the Creator when one is sick—therefore you must keep away from things that damage the body, and develop habits that improve the body and heal it. Similarly, it is said: “You shall guard yourselves very well.”<sup class="footnote-marker">1</sup><i class="footnote">Devarim 4:15.</i>
The Creator, blessed be He and blessed be His name, created the human being (and all living creatures) and gave them their natural warmth. This is the person’s life-force; if the natural fire is extinguished, life is gone. The maintenance of this warmth depends on the food that one eats. As with a burning fire, where if it is not regularly supplied with wood it will be entirely extinguished, so too with the human being: if one does not eat, the internal fire will be extinguished, and he will die. The food is ground between the teeth, mixed with saliva and mashed up. From there it descends to the stomach, where it is further broken down and is mixed with the stomach juices and bile, blended and processed by the heat and by the juices, and digested. The choice elements provide sustenance to all the limbs and sustains the person’s life; the waste, which is the extraneous material, is ejected. Of this we say in the Asher Yatzar blessing, “and [G-d] acts wondrously”—that G-d placed within the human being the natural ability to filter the good elements from the food, with each limb drawing the substance that befits it, and the waste being ejected. Were the waste to remain in the body, it would putrefy and bring on sickness, may G-d preserve us. Therefore, most aspects of bodily health and illness depend on the digestion of food: if the food is digested well and with ease, then the person is healthy; but if there are digestive problems, then the person becomes weak and can end up in danger, G-d forbid.
Good digestion occurs when the food consumed is not excessive, and when it is easily digestible. If you eat a lot and the stomach is full, then digestion becomes difficult, for then the stomach is not able to expand and contract, as it should by nature, to properly process the food. Just as with a fire, where if it is over-heaped with wood it will not burn well, so it is with the food in the stomach. Therefore, if you wish to guard the health of your body, be careful not to eat more than an amount that is average relative to your body’s constitution, neither too little nor to full satiation. Most illnesses that come upon people are due only to bad foods, or filling one’s belly and eating excessively even of good foods. Thus said King Solomon in his wisdom: “One who watches his mouth and his tongue guards his soul from troubles,”<sup class="footnote-marker">2</sup><i class="footnote">Mishlei 21:23</i> meaning: guard your mouth from eating bad food and from being fully satisfied, and your tongue from speaking except as needed. Likewise the wise man said: One who eats a small amount of harmful foods is not harmed as much as one who eats excessively of good food.
A youthful person has a strong digestive capacity, and therefore requires food more often than a middle-aged person. And an elderly person, whose digestive capacity is weak, must eat light foods, in small quantity and of good quality, to invigorate his strength.
On hot days the digestive system is weakened by the heat, and therefore you ought to eat less during on hot days than on cold ones. Expert physicians have estimated that during the summer you should eat two-thirds of what you eat during the winter.
It is a general rule of healthy practice that before eating, you should engage in some strenuous activity, whether walking or working, so that your body is warmed up, and then you should eat. As the verse says, “By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread,”<sup class="footnote-marker">3</sup><i class="footnote">Bereishit 3:19.</i> and “She does not eat the bread of laziness.”<sup class="footnote-marker">4</sup><i class="footnote">Mishlei 31:27.</i> You should loosen your belt before eating. This is hinted at in the verse אקחה פת לחם (“I will take a morsel of bread”<sup class="footnote-marker">5</sup><i class="footnote">Bereishit 18:5.</i>): the word אקחה in reverse is an acronym for התר חגורה קודם אכילה (“loosen the belt before eating”), and פת לחם is an acronym for פן תבוא לידי חולי מעיים (“lest you cause yourself digestive disorders”). While eating, you should sit in your place or recline on your left side. After eating, don’t move about excessively, because that will cause the food to descend from the stomach before it has been fully digested, which can be harmful; rather one should walk a little and rest. But you should not go on a long walk or engage in strenuous activity after the meal. Nor should you sleep till at least two hours have elapsed after the meal, so that the fumes will not ascend to the head and cause damage. Likewise, bathing, bloodletting and sexual intercourse are not beneficial after a meal.
People are not all alike in temperament. Some have a hot temperament, some cool, some intermediate. Foods likewise are varied. If you have an intermediate temperament, you should eat foods that are median too. But if your temperament is not an intermediate one, you should eat foods that are the opposite of your temperament. If your temperament is hot, you should not eat hot things like herbs and spices, but rather things that are somewhat cold and pickled. If your temperament is cool, you should eat foods that are somewhat hot. Similarly, the food should be adjusted in accordance with the season and the climate: In the summer you should eat cold foods, like the meat of tender lambs or kids, and young chickens, and also some pickled foods. And in the winter, eat hot foods. Similarly, in a cold country you should eat hot foods, and in a hot country you should eat cold foods.
The median food is bread made from wheat, but not of the purest flour, for bread made of the purest flour is digested at a slower pace. It should rather contain some bran, and it should be moderately risen, contain salt, and baked in an oven. Other foods made of wheat are not beneficial. Of the varieties of meat, the best is that of a yearling lamb or of suckling kids. But in all cases the innards, and also the head, are not beneficial. The meat of goat and old cows, and old cheese, are bad and turgid foods. All bird’s meat is digested more easily than that of animals, and the best type of bird is chicken. Physicians have stated that if you are accustomed to a particular food, even if it is bad food, it does not harm you, because habit becomes second nature—provided that you do not stuff yourself with such food.
You should not eat the heart of an animal or bird, because it is harmful to your memory. Similarly, do not eat from a place where a rat or a cat has bitten, for that too is harmful to your memory.<sup class="footnote-marker">6</sup><i class="footnote">Talmud, Horayot 13b.</i>
The time to eat is when you feel a true desire to eat, not an artificial one. The distinction between a true desire and an artificial one is as follows: The first is called “hunger,” because the stomach is empty; and the second is when one desires a particular food, and it is called “appetite.” In general, a healthy and strong person should eat twice each day. Weak and old people should eat only a little at a time, and do so many times each day, for too much food weakens the stomach. If you wish to guard your health, do not eat until your stomach is empty of the previous meal. Normal digestion, for healthy people who eat and exercise to an intermediate degree, takes six hours. It is advisable to skip one meal each week to allow the stomach to rest from its work, thereby strengthening the digestive capacity. It seems that the optimal time for this skipping is on Friday, prior to Shabbat.
It is good to accustom yourself to eat bread in the morning.<sup class="footnote-marker">7</sup><i class="footnote">See Talmud, Bava Metzia 107b.</i>
If you wish to eat various types of food, you should first eat something that has a laxative effect—but not mix this with your food; wait a while between them. Also, eat the lighter food first, as it digests more easily—for example, poultry before meat, and the meat of a more delicate animal before the meat of a larger animal. Foods that have a costive effect on the intestines should be eaten directly after the meal, but you should not eat very much of them.
Because the digestive process begins in the mouth, where the teeth grind the food and where it is mixed with saliva, you should therefore not swallow food without chewing, because it will then be difficult for the stomach alone to digest it.
We have already noted (in paragraph 7) that people are not all alike in their temperament, so that each person should follow physicians’ advice and accordingly choose the food that is best for them according to their temperament, their location, and their time. In general terms, the ancient physicians divided foodstuffs into various grades. There are foods that are extremely detrimental, and it is recommended to never eat them. These include: large fish that are salted and aged, aged salted cheese, truffles and mushrooms, aged salted meat, [unfermented] wine from the press, and any cooked food that has been left to the point that it gives off an odor. Likewise, any food that has a bad smell or a very bitter taste is like deadly poison to the body. There are other foods that are harmful, but not as detrimental as those already mentioned. Therefore it is recommended to eat them only in small quantities and at long intervals; don’t be in the habit of making them your regular diet or part of your regular diet. These include: large fish, cheese, milk that has been left for more than twenty-four hours since it was milked, the meat of large oxen or large male goats, barley bread, matzah, cabbage, leeks, onions, garlic, mustard and radishes. All of these are harmful, and it is recommended that one eat only a little of these, and only during the winter. But in the summer, one should not eat these at all.
There are other foods that are harmful, but not to the same degree as those mentioned. These include: water birds (geese and ducks), young pigeons, dates, bread that was kneaded with oil, and fine flour that has been so thoroughly sifted that no hint of bran remains. It is not recommended to eat much of these foods.
You should always abstain from eating tree fruits. Even when they are dried, you should not eat too many of them, and certainly not when they are fresh. But before they have ripened fully they are like swords to the body. Carobs, too, are always harmful. All tart fruits are harmful, and they should be eaten only in small portions during the summer or in hot climates. Figs, grapes, and pomegranates<sup class="footnote-marker">8</sup><i class="footnote">The commentary <i>Misgeres Hashulchan</i> suggests (based on Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, Hil. De’os 4:11, that chapter being the source of much of the advice given here) that the correct reading should be “almonds.”</i> are always beneficial, whether fresh or dried, and you may eat of them as much as you need. Nevertheless, you should not eat them constantly, though they are the best of all the tree fruits.
As regards drinks, water is the natural liquid for a human being and for the health of the body. If they are pure and clear, they are beneficial in that they maintain the body’s moisture and hasten the ejection of waste. When you drink water, it is preferable that it be cold, because it quenches thirst and improves digestion more than water that is not cold. But it should not be very cold, because that extinguishes the natural heat [of the body]. All the more so, when you are tired and exhausted, you should be very careful to not drink [very] cold water, for then the fat of the heart is heated and melted because of tiredness and exhaustion, and cold water is harmful to the point that you might be endangered, G-d forbid. Now although water is good for the health of the body, nevertheless you should not drink too much of it. You should not drink water before a meal, for it will cool down the stomach and it will not be able to digest the food properly. During the meal, too, you should not drink anything other than a bit of water mixed with wine. Only once the food has begun to be digested should you drink a moderate serving of water. Likewise, you should not drink water when you exit the bathhouse, so that the liver is not chilled; certainly you should not drink in the bathhouse. Likewise, you should not drink water directly after sexual intercourse, for then your natural heat is weakened, and it will cause the limbs to become chilled.
Wine fortifies the natural heat, improves digestion, helps to eject excess waste, and aids the health of the body, so long as you drink a moderate measure. If your head is weak, avoid wine, for it will make you weaker and fill your head with fumes. Wine is good for older people but harmful for youths, for it arouses the natural heat and is like adding fire to fire. You should avoid wine until the age of twenty-one. It is not recommended to drink wine before a meal—except a little in order to open up the innards—nor when you are hungry, have just exited the bathhouse or sauna, or have just exercised or worked hard. During the meal, you should drink only a little.
You should never eat unless you are hungry, nor drink unless you are thirsty, nor wait to defecate for even one moment. You should also not eat till you have thoroughly checked whether you need to eliminate.
You should always endeavor to keep your bowels lax throughout your life; they should be approaching a mild diarrheic state. A general rule of health is that whenever there is constipation or difficulty in defecating, harmful illnesses are on the way. Therefore, if you see that your bowels have weakened and have lost the power of ejecting, you should consult doctors for advice on how to loosen them, each person according to his temperament and age.
A moderate amount of exercise is good for the body’s health (see above, paragraph 6). But strenuous exercise, and also rest, are detrimental to the body. In the summer one should exercise only a little, and during the winter you need more. A fat person must exercise more than a thin one.
If you want to guard your health, you must be familiar with your emotional reactions and be cautious with them. Examples of these are joy, anxiety, anger and fear, all of which have psychological impact. An intelligent person should be happy with the portion granted to him during his transitory life, not anxious about a world that is not his own. You should not seek luxuries, but should be satisfied and moderately joyful, for this aids the improvement of the natural body heat, digestion of food and expulsion of waste, and strengthening of the sense of vision and all other senses; it also strengthens the intellectual faculties. But you should not try to increase your happiness by feasting and drinking, as fools do, because too much happiness brings body heat to the surface, sapping the body’s natural warmth, so that the heart becomes chilled rapidly and the person may die prematurely and suddenly. This especially occurs to people whose bodies are corpulent, for they have less natural heat in their bodies because their blood vessels are narrow and the circulation, which is source of the body’s heat, is slow. Anxiety is the opposite of joy, and it too is harmful, for it cools the body, so that the natural heat may converge on the heart and cause one’s death. Anger stokes the heat of the body, to the point that it can induce one or another kind of fever. Fear brings a chill to the body—thus, a fearful person shivers—and if this chill becomes too much, he may die. Needless to say, you should be careful not to eat when angry, fearful or anxious, but rather when in a moderately joyful mood.
Sleep in moderation is good for the health of the body; then the food is digested and the faculties are at rest. If it happens that one is unable to sleep due to illness, he should eat foods that induce sleepiness. But too much sleep is detrimental, for the head then becomes filled with fumes which ascend from the belly to the brain; when the head is filled with such fumes, it causes great damage to the body. Just as you should be careful not to sleep directly after eating, so should you take care not to sleep when you are hungry, for when there is no food in the body, its heat acts on the excess [food waste], producing degraded fumes that ascend to the brain. When you sleep, your head should be raised up [higher than the rest of the body], for this will allow the food to descend from the opening of the stomach, and will decrease the amount of fumes that ascend to the brain. Natural sleep occurs at night. Sleep during the day is harmful, and is beneficial only to those who are accustomed to it (see more in chapter 71).
The norm for bathing is that you should enter the bathhouse once in seven days. You should not enter the bathhouse when hungry, nor when you are full, but when the food has begun to be digested. You should first wash your body with hot water, then with warm water, then with lukewarm, and finally with cold water. When you exit the bath, you should dress and cover your head well, so that it should not be exposed to cold air; even in the summer season, you must take care with this. Afterwards you should wait till your spirit is settled, your body is rested and the heat has dissipated; then you can eat. If you nap for a short time after exiting the bathhouse and before eating, that is very beneficial.
You should always try to live in a place where the air is pure and clean, high up and in a spacious building. If possible, in the summer you should not live in a place that is open to the north or to the east, and there should be nothing foul-smelling nearby. It is very good to clean the air of the home constantly with good scents and beneficial fumigants.
The air that is best for the health of the body is of average temperature, neither too cold nor too hot. Therefore everyone should be careful not to overheat their homes during the winter, as unthinking people do, because excessive heat encourages the onset of many grave illnesses, G-d forbid. Rather, you should heat your home only to the point where you do not feel any coldness but also do not feel too hot.
To preserve your sense of sight, take the following precautions: Do not come suddenly, all at once, from a dark place to a well-lit one. If you need to enter from a dark place to a lighted one, open the door a bit and look at that small amount of light for a few moments, then open it more and again look at that light for a few moments, and then open it completely. Do the same when going from a lighted area to a dark one. This is because the shift from light to darkness, or from darkness to light, without any transition, damages the sense of sight. For this reason G-d, blessed be His name, in His great mercy created the world in such a way that the sun shines upon the earth little by little, not all at once, and likewise sets little by little. For this we bless Him as “the One who illuminates the earth and those who dwell upon it, with mercy,” meaning that He mercifully makes the sun shine little by little, and not suddenly, all at once. Reflected light from the sun—meaning that the sun shines on something and from there the light is reflected—is a light that is damaging to the eyes. Therefore you should take care not to dwell in a house where all the windows are on the north side, because the sun does not come to the north, so that all the light that comes from that side is only reflected light. Similarly, even if the windows are on the eastern, southern or western sides, if you cannot see the sky through the windows—for example, if there are high walls opposite them—then the light that comes through them is also only reflected light. You should take care not to be occupied with writing, reading a book, or any sort of detailed work by twilight, or in the middle of the day, when the sun’s light is at full strength. You should also not do too much writing, reading of books with fine print, or any other sort of detailed work by candlelight at night. Too much staring at the color white also damages the eyes; that is why the sky appears blue, not white, so it should not damage the eyes. Likewise, staring excessively at a bright red color, or at fire, is also damaging. Smoke and sulfurous fumes are also damaging, as are fine dust and wind that blows into one’s eyes. Also too much walking and large strides, and excessive crying [are harmful], as the verse says, “My eyes are spent with tears.”<sup class="footnote-marker">9</sup><i class="footnote">Eichah 2:11.</i> Most detrimental of all is excessive sexual intercourse. By contrast, “the commandment of G-d is clear, enlightening the eyes.”<sup class="footnote-marker">10</sup><i class="footnote">Tehillim 19:9.</i>