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preferred to die instead of his patient. It is clear that this physician 1 AnsweR
will not repeat his sin, and it is not proper to publicize his error since
he is defined as a repentant person. A similar case happened many years ago, when a woman became
infected with tuberculosis and went to her physician. After he ex-
The Chafetz Chaim states (Hilchos Lashon Hara, Rule 10:1): amined her, he determined that if she continues to live with her
husband she poses a danger to him, as he may also become infected,
If someone sees that a person did an injustice to another,
such as if he stole from him, or robbed him or harmed because one must avoid contact with her sputum and the utensils
she uses. Therefore, they should get divorced. Since they never had
him… or that he shamed him or pained him… and he any fights or quarrels, her husband believed her. They traveled to a
knows for certain that he did not return what he stole rav who prepared a proper halachic bill of divorce for them. After a
and did not pay for the damage he caused and did not ask
forgiveness for his sin, he is allowed to tell these things to while, the husband learned that his wife was healthy and was about
to marry another man, whom she had obviously set her eyes on. She
people to help the victims and to publicly condemn the had bribed and convinced the physician to tell her husband that she
bad acts that were done.
is dangerously ill. On the basis of this statement, he had given her the
So, too, if the beis din issues a judgment against someone and he bill of divorce.
refuses to abide by it and the beis din finds it necessary to publicize The question came to the rav of the city: Is the divorce null and
this fact, it is permissible to do so in order to save others from his void, so that she is prohibited from marrying another man? The Rav
injustices. Even greater than that is what is cited in maseches Kesubos referred the question to the Gaon, author of Divrei Malkiel (Part 8
49b, that if a person refuses to sustain and feed his son, one should #201) and he answered, as follows:
announce this in public. 1. The Rav and the beis din of the city must tell the woman that
All the above applies if the publicity will be beneficial – ensuring if she really asked the physician to say what he did, the divorce
that the thief will return what he stole, and the father will feed and is null and void and she is a married woman in all respects. If
sustain his son. But if a person sinned and shows signs of remorse, she marries another man and has children, they are mamzerim,
it is forbidden to disgrace him. As the Rambam says (Hilchos Teshu- because the divorce was given by mistake.
vah 7:10): “It is a big sin to say to a repenter ‘Remember your earlier
actions,’ or to remind him of them in order to shame him, as it is writ- 2. One can dispute this ruling and say that since the husband did
ten: “A person should not shame one’s fellowman.” Even if the person not look into the physician’s diagnosis thoroughly, and relied on
was judged in a beis din and many heard about it, it is forbidden to it implicitly, it seems that either way he wanted to divorce her. If
publicize the matter. As explained in the Rambam (Hilchos Deos 7:8) not, then why did he not make the effort to see if they physician
even if the disgrace is already widely known it is forbidden to repeat was indeed speaking the truth? Therefore, the divorce is valid,
it if one’s intent is to spread the word and disgrace him more. All the despite the wife’s bribing of the physician.
more so, if this will diminish his livelihood and marriage prospects, In a similar case in maseches Gittin (46a) the Sages decreed
and all the more so, if the matter is publicized in newspapers and is that if one divorces one’s wife because of a bad reputation
engraved in the minds of the readers. (a rumor that she had relations with another man), he

 can never take her back, even if she did not in the interim

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