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the stone cut into the baby’s legs and injured him. Perhaps the Torah
mentions this to show us that there are uncontrollable situations in
which even the righteous like Tzipporah may err.

A Jewish boy once unintentionally injured a gentile child. The gen-
tiles tried to grab the boy and take their revenge on him. Another Jew
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told them: I will chase after him and punish him with the full force
of the law for you. The Jew’s intent was to rescue the boy from their
cruel hands. He began running after the child, who, in his fear, fell
into a well and drowned. The Jew asked the Maharshal (#96) if he was
obligated to go into exile. The Maharshal answered that he had not
sinned, for had a beis din been there, they would have told him to do
exactly what he did, and it was a decree from Heaven. The Maharshal
concluded his response with the words: It is forbidden to burden the
rescuer with any kind of kapparah… for then in the future people will
not set out to save lives out of fear of the repercussions.
From these words we learn for our case:
A person shot in the abdomen was brought to the emergency
room with signs of shock (low blood pressure and a rapid pulse).
The physician on duty decided on immediate surgery, fearing in-
tra-abdominal bleeding. After they prepared the patient for surgery
and put him under anesthesia, the patient showed signs of an allergic
reaction to the anesthesia. All the efforts of the physicians to revive
him were fruitless, and he died. The cause of death was most likely
the anesthetic drugs injected into him.
In this case, the physician is exempt from exile because he did
nothing wrong, and we do not burden him with any means of achiev-
ing kapparah in order not to deter future rescuers. This case is not
comparable to the case of an agent who was killed on the road, where
the person who sent him requires atonement since bad happenings
come about through the guilty. Since the physician here was involved
in an act of rescue and the merit of this mitzvah is in his hands, he has
not sinned at all. On the contrary: he will be greatly rewarded. Here,
the surgery was urgent and necessary and his decision was the correct
one. He is not like the physician who made an erroneous decision, nor
130 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein
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fire him and perhaps also fine him and revoke his license to practice
medicine, at least for some time, until he repents and the beis din
determines that from now on he is worthy of serving as a physician.
The Pnei Yehoshua on maseches Bava Kamma (94b, Tosfos, s.v.
In the days of Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi) writes that if one regularly 5
borrowed money for interest, his children are not obligated to honor
him. But if he borrowed money for interest only occasionally, it would
not be logical to say that his children do not have to honor him for
that reason.
So, too, we learned in Tana Devei Eliyahu Rabbah (Ch. 23):
The verse (Shemos 21:20): “And if a man hits his servant,
and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be avenged”
teaches us that a physician, or the agent of a beis din who
administers 40 lashes, or a teacher who hits his student,
all of whom are considered to have killed a person inten-
tionally, can be fired from their jobs and made to find other
work. If they repent, one can reinstate them.
Here it is referring to an intentional act of killing. It is probable that
the same would apply if the act was “close to intentional,” but not if
done unintentionally, especially if it is close to an anuss, for then one
does not fire him for one occurrence.
In Sefer Hadras Zekeinim (Hilchos Shechitah #2:5), the author
cites in the name of the Be’er Hagolah (quoted from Darchei Teshuvah
#1:50), that “if one sees negligence in a shochet and his character is
not good, such as if he is a miser and gets angry all the time, his fate
depends on the view of the judges [in the beis din]. If he does not
improve his ways, the rav of the city can fire him if his intent is for the
sake of Heaven.” From here we can learn that if those who appointed
a physician see that he treats his responsibilities lightly, or that he has
bad personal characteristics, he should be fired and prohibited from
doing the holy work of healing others.
It says in the Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat #231:28) that the
people of the city can decide among themselves that anyone who vi-
olates the conditions that they decreed will be punished in a specific
Dangerous medication causes death 2 147
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