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

130 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein Dangerous medication causes death 2 147

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