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him back to court, even four or five times. (In Sefer Sanhedrei Ketanah
it rules “even a hundred times.”) Even if the man calls the Sanhedrin
back into session falsely many times, we take him back, for perhaps
this time he is telling the truth.
One can reject this reasoning in regard to our case. We take the
litigant back to court “only if there is substance in what he is saying.”
Furthermore, in that case we are going to kill him directly and there-
fore we must try and avoid killing him. In our case, however, we have
no proof that we have to heed the man’s words and actively call an
ambulance.
I asked my father-in-law, Rav Y. S. Elyashiv zt”l, this question, and
he answered me: A man’s wife knows him and his weaknesses very
well. If she thinks that this time is the same as the previous times,
she is entitled to consider the expense and the bother and not to call
an ambulance. If an accident occurs, it came from Hashem and she
is not at fault. This is not comparable to the case in Sanhedrin, where
the convicted man is to be returned to court with each new claim. In
that case, each claim is a new one, while here the repeated complaints
are always the same.
If the patient had a new complaint, we would have to pay attention
to his words. If she was unsure if his words were credible, but because
of his repeated complaints, she paid him no heed, then she requires
atonement.
Likewise if a physician knows his patient and is convinced that his
complaints are just like the previous ones, he should not desecrate the
Shabbos. Perhaps on Yom Kippur he should pay heed to the patient’s
complaints, because the fast itself may make his condition worse.
In Responsa Tzemach Tzedek (#53) there is a discussion about a
married woman who was unfaithful to her husband and gave birth
to a child. We allow the child to marry a Jew since we assume the
child is from her husband, because most of her sexual encounters
were with her husband (as explained in maseches Sotah 27a). Does
she need atonement as though she had given birth to a mamzer? He
answered that even if we do not suspect that the child is a mamzer,
she still needs to repent because perhaps she became pregnant from
174 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein
6 the sack would have ruined the gift for his father-in-law, he should
not have considered the loss of the gift as he hastened to save a life.
The Chelkas Yaakov (Part 2 #143, in the reprint Part 3 #33) writes
as follows:
During the years of persecution of the Jews by the Nazis,
may their name be blotted out, a camp was evacuated due
to the Nazis’ fear of the approaching American armies.
The remaining Jews in the camp were pressured beyond
endurance in their weakened state… A Jew who collapsed
enroute and could not continue was shot on the spot and
killed. These were called “death marches.” Once in a while,
the wicked ones would give them a few moments to rest
on the side of the road. It often occurred that one of these
wretched inmates would doze off or fall into a deep sleep
due to his weakness, and when the command to continue
marching would come and he would sleep on, the Nazi
murderer would immediately kill him without a word. For
this reason the wretched inmates would stick together and
when they would sit down to rest, one would wake up the
other.
One G-d-fearing man was walking with his younger
brother. When they sat down, he told his brother to sleep,
and that he would make sure to awaken him. As the break
lengthened into a full hour, the man himself dozed off as
well. Suddenly the shouting began: “Move, move.” In his
the confusion, the man ran to the place where his friends
stood. His mind was muddled as he began to march.
When he remembered his brother, he could not go back
for him because of the danger to his own life. He never saw
his brother again and it is clear to him that the Nazis killed
him. It is now thirteen years later and he is plagued by
guilt, and depressed. He asked his rav whether he requires
atonement. The esteemed Rav’s answer was that he does
not need atonement and he brings adequate support to his
Physician did not respond and patient died 2 167