For a toroidally symmetric sharp boundary plasma, the magnetohydrodynamic stability analysis of Lu¨st, Suydam, Richtmyer, Rotenberg, and Levy is extended to equilibria with a small ratio of azimuthal to longitudinal magnetic fields and a large aspect ratio(&agr;). These equilbria exist only when&bgr;<&agr;(field ratio)2/2. In the limit of small&bgr;, the stability criteria are identical to those of a straight cylindrical plasma with length2&pgr;&agr;. This is true to leading order in1/&agr;in spite of mathematical complications arising from toroidal effects. However, as&bgr;is increased to its maximum value for field ratios of order1/&agr;, toroidal effects help stabilize long‐wavelength kink modes. The limits considered apply to tokamaks.