The Jewish Value of Shmirat haGuf

Shmirat haguf, or “guarding the body,” is the responsibility to avoid harm and promote health for ourselves as individuals and for our greater community. This is a Torah-based value and framework for understanding how our personal well-being is intertwined with the health and safety of others. Shmirat haguf calls us to reflect on how the systems that support us, and that we in turn sustain, align with our ethics.

Where Does Shmirat haGuf Come From?

Though the phrase shmirat haguf doesn’t appear directly in the Torah, it is rooted in key Torah-based and rabbinic literary sources. A core reference for this value comes from Deuteronomy 4:15:

“כִּ֤י תִבְנֶה֙ בַּ֣יִת חָדָ֔שׁ וְעָשִׂ֥יתָ מַעֲקֶ֖ה לְגַגֶּ֑ךָ וְלֹֽא־תָשִׂ֤ים דָּמִים֙ בְּבֵיתֶ֔ךָ כִּֽי־יִפֹּ֥ל הַנֹּפֵ֖ל מִמֶּֽנּוּ׃”
“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it.”

This biblical verse is often interpreted as a directive to take care of both one’s spiritual and physical well-being. The Hebrew word nafshoteichem can mean “souls” or “lives,” and Chazal, the early Sages of the Talmud and rabbinic tradition, understood this verse to include the obligation to care for one’s health and body. 

This interpretation forms the basis for a religious obligation to avoid harm and promote bodily health. The Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 32a; Berakhot 32b) and halachic authorities like Maimonides and the Shulchan Aruch emphasize that endangering oneself is prohibited and that taking preventive health measures is a mitzvah—a sacred obligation.

Promoting Personal and Communal Health

In Jewish tradition, protecting one’s own body and health is tied to caring for the health and safety of others. By taking responsibility for our personal well-being while supporting systems that protect communal health, we fulfill both shmirat haguf and pikuach nefesh, our ethical duty to preserve life.

One source that captures this relationship between personal and communal health is Deuteronomy 22:8:

“כִּ֤י תִבְנֶה֙ בַּ֣יִת חָדָ֔שׁ וְעָשִׂ֥יתָ מַעֲקֶ֖ה לְגַגֶּ֑ךָ וְלֹֽא־תָשִׂ֤ים דָּמִים֙ בְּבֵיתֶ֔ךָ כִּֽי־יִפֹּ֥ל הַנֹּפֵ֖ל מִמֶּֽנּוּ׃”
“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it.”

This mitzvah obligates individuals to consider the well-being of others by removing potential physical hazards from their property. Rabbis interpret the verse as a broader ethical and legal duty to prevent foreseeable harm. This framing emphasizes a communal responsibility to protect public health and safety, not just within one’s home, but in all aspects of life where inaction could put others at risk. 

We can think of contemporary approaches to promoting public health—like vaccinations, sanitation, clean drinking water, and food safety—as aligned with halachic concepts of preventing harm before it happens (pikuach nefesh). In this light, shmirat haguf isn’t only about how we care for ourselves, but how we help maintain the health and safety of those around us.

Self-Care Enables Service

Jewish tradition affirms that our ability to act in the world depends on our capacity to care for ourselves. We practice shmirat haguf to make sure we are of sound body, which enables us to show up to care for our community. 

The Asher Yatzar, a morning prayer that some also recite after using the bathroom, acknowledges that health enables service: If all of these bodily processes are not functioning as they should, then I cannot “stand before you (God)” and carry out acts of good for the world. 

Advocates in the Jewish community acknowledge that tikkun olam is dependent upon taking care of our bodies and souls. 

“As Jewish and queer activists, it is important to remember that the value of Tikkun Olam, ‘Repairing the World,’ can only be achieved when we practice Shmirat Hanefesh and Tikkun HaGuf, taking care of our own minds and bodies. Self-forgiveness is certainly important for Shmirat Hanefesh, and thus for Tikkun Olam.”
- Lily Fisher Gomberg

Importantly, Jewish values like shmirat haguf call for honoring both our bodies and the broader systems in which we live. In doing so we ready ourselves to contribute to creating a vision of justice that benefits us as individuals and as a collective. By investing in personal nourishment and rest we will be better equipped to build communities rooted in compassion and mutual care. A more just world requires us to build systems and practices that promote health and to ensure the well-being and flourishing of all life.

The Health Risks of Our Food System 

Food is one of the most common and influential ways our values show up in the world. It shapes our bodies, our communities, and the systems that sustain us. Unfortunately, our food and farming systems, particularly industrial animal agriculture, operate in ways that pose major public health risks. 

activist elsie herring at her north carolina home suffering from environmental injustice and pollutants from NC CAFO as an example of CJFE's framing of shmirat haguf and the health risks of our food system

Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / #unboundproject / We Animals

CAFOs Harm Communities

The factory farming model that produces 99% of all animal products on shelves in the United States also produces significant threats to individual, communal, and planetary health. There are over 21,000 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the US and it is estimated that each can produce up to 1.6 million tons of waste per year. People working in or living near CAFOs experience disproportionately high adverse health effects related to air, water, and soil pollution caused by the operations’ waste and emissions. The communities that bear the brunt of this environmental injustice tend to be rural and made up of people of color. A study, conducted in North Carolina, the nation’s leader in hog and poultry production, found that the proportion of Black, Hispanic, and Native American communities located within 3 miles of a CAFO is 1.52 times higher, respectively, than white communities.

Overuse of Antibiotics 

Another major health risk related to factory farms is antimicrobial resistance. About 80% of all antibiotics sold in the US are used in animal agriculture and approximately 70% of those are medically important for humans. These drugs are routinely administered not to treat illness, but to prevent disease in animals raised in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. A secondary, unofficial outcome of this practice is unnaturally accelerated animal growth.  The widespread overuse of drugs results in antibiotic pollution leads to environmental contamination and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can infect humans. Antimicrobial resistance was associated with the deaths of nearly 5 million people in 2019, a number that is predicted to grow to 10 million by 2050

The Threat of Zoonotic Diseases

The structure of CAFOs creates an ideal environment for the transmission of zoonotic diseases, or diseases that can be spread between animals and humans. Research shows that since 1940, approximately 50% of zoonotic disease emergence have been linked to agriculture. Notable and still relevant examples of zoonotic disease are the COVID-19 pandemic and the current bird flu outbreak that has been circulating since 2022. 

Factory farms pose long-term public health risks across society. From a Jewish ethical perspective, supporting such a system contradicts our fundamental obligation to avoid or minimize harm wherever it is preventable, thereby safeguarding the health and dignity of all people. 

Nourishing Ourselves and Our Systems

Shmirat haguf teaches that taking care of ourselves is a sacred act, and that individual health is never fully separate from the well-being of our community. Upholding shmirat haguf in today’s complex food system involves thoughtful reflection and intentional choices at the communal level. By improving or implementing new food practices aligned with our ethics, each community can contribute to reducing harm and promoting a healthier future for all.


Get involved in building a healthier and more just food system. Reach out to our team for educational resources and to schedule a free ethical food policy consultation for your Jewish community.

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