Total smoking bans in homes and cities greatly increase the likelihood that smokers will cut back or quit, according to a new study published in the journal Preventive Medicine. "When there's a total smoking ban in the home, we found that smokers are more likely to reduce tobacco consumption and attempt to quit than when they're allowed to smoke in some parts of the house," Dr. Wael Al-Delaimy, chief of the division of global health, department of family and preventive medicine, University of California, San Diego, said in a university news release.

"The same held true when smokers report a total smoking ban in their city or town. Having both home and city bans on smoking appears to be even more effective," he added.

The difference between relegating smoking to certain times or places, compared to banning it altogether, can be likened to our relationship to evil before and after the Redemption. As long as we permit evil a small space in our lives, we need to do battle with it constantly. There is always the threat that the evil will want to move out of those boundaries and take over the rest of our lives. Regarding the Redemption, the prophet Zechariah says, “And I will remove the spirit of impurity from this world.” We will no longer need to do battle with evil, as the G-dly revelation will be so strong that evil will have no room to exist.

In the time of Redemption, the prophet Isaiah says, “[G-d] will swallow up death forever; G-d, the L-rd, will wipe away tears from every face.” The potential for death entered the world with the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. By eating of the tree, Adam and Eve internalized evil and thus caused the good and bad to become intermingled. In that state, if people were to live forever, the bad they had assimilated would last forever too. Death entered the world with the sin of the Tree of Knowledge to prevent evil from being perpetuated for eternity. Ever since then, it’s been our task to refine the world, to elevate the sparks of holiness buried in the mundane world.

In the era of Redemption, the bad will completely cease to exist, and thus death will cease to exist as well. Our bodies will be nurtured from holiness alone, just as the soul does – in fact, when Moshiach comes the body will be on a higher rung than the soul.

As the Lubavitcher Rebbe stated, we are already in the era of Moshiach, we only need to open our eyes to see it. Our battle with evil has ended. We can transcend the struggle by no longer allowing room for evil in our lives. It simply has no place. We are ready for life on an advanced level of peace and tranquility, a day of Shabbat forever after.