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himself to speak about healing of a circumcision in public Malkiel. In our case, the physician spoke definitively; he diagnosed
because it is commonplace, and perhaps he thought it was her with syphilis and explained to them the severity of the matter,
not the best thing to take compensation for the mitzvah of and that is why the husband did not investigate further.
healing the place of circumcision. But in order not to make In seems that despite this, the husband should have investigated
them lose their livelihood, he left one remedy unrevealed. further. Sometimes physicians exaggerate. If he did not investigate,
The Rashash explains that Rava used to hear all sorts of it shows that she was not so beloved to him. This is according to the
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remedies from them, and therefore, when he publicized Shiltei Gibborim (in maseches Sanhedrin, Ch. 8, 18b from the pages of
the remedy for circumcision, he left one remedy a secret so 7 the Rif) where it says, “It was not clear that he would die from that
as not to limit their livelihood. illness, even if the physicians said he would die. Many patients are
decreed as dying by their physicians and their recovery is imminent.”
B) Publicizing the names of the physicians will cause them to raise We see that physicians sometimes exaggerate the severity of an ill-
their prices, while a market survey of businesses will only bring ness. Therefore, the husband should have looked into the diagnosis.
prices down
If despite this he still divorced her, it must be that she was not so
C) These doctors will become haughty and cease from attaining beloved to him.
more knowledge in their field.

D) Every patient is destined to be healed by a certain physician.
Therefore, if a mediocre physician made an oath not to care for
a patient, and there is a more expert physician available, but
the patient insists on the mediocre one, the so-called mediocre To live in a place forbidden to a person by his
physician is obligated to care for him despite his oath. “A person physician
does not merit to be healed by just any physician.” (Yerushalmi, 1
Kesuvos, Chapter 13) It is possible that he was destined to be Question
healed specifically by the lesser-known physician. Thus, it is not A physician determined that if a certain person lives in a hot climate
correct to publicize only the renowned and expert physicians, it will be harmful to his health. Is he permitted to live there, or is he
because they are not always the ones to succeed in treating every prohibited from doing so because of the Torah law “Take good care of
patient.
yourselves” (Devarim 4:15), meaning, care for your health?
One might publicly rate a physician using the following text: “We
have checked out only some of the expert physicians. There are cer- 1 AnsweR
tainly other physicians who did not make the list who are competent
and capable of healing patients.” I believe that even this should not be The Ramban writes (in responsum #272) as follows: Reuven married
done, however, because it will discourage the lesser-known physicians the daughter of Shimon, and swore to Shimon, his father-in-law,
from advancing, as they will feel that they will never rank among the that he and his wife would live for five full years in Shimon’s place of
“best” anyway. residence. If expert physicians tell Reuven he should not go to live in
If there is an agreement among the physicians not to have any another city because the air there would make him sick, but the city

218 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein Divorce due to erroneous medical information 2 187

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