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1 SuMMaRy and Conclusions that she does not have syphilis, the divorce is null and void. However,
if the physician’s words were not spoken definitively, and the husband
1. If an administrator does not have the time to write evaluation should not have been so convinced that he must divorce her, but he
letters containing negative information about physicians, he can nevertheless did divorce her, the divorce is valid.
dictate them to his secretary and then fill in the names of the My father-in-law cited evidence in favor of his view from Ein
physicians on his own. Yitzchak (Part 2, Even Haezer #37), who discusses the case of a young
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2. If it is not possible to do this, says the Tzitz Eliezer, it is permis- couple who married, and three weeks later, the wife claimed that the
sible for the administrator to dictate letters to the secretary with marriage was not working out and asked for a divorce. The husband
the name, since the physician has waived his right for respect. did not want to divorce her because he loved her. His wife and rela-
According to my father-in-law, the administrator should none- tives deceivingly told him that in Poland there was a very famous rav
theless take the time to write the letters himself. whose expert advice would help the marriage succeed. They repeat-
edly tried to persuade him to travel with his wife to this renowned
 rabbi whose advice would bring peace and love to their home. Then
they told him that they had traveled to the famous rav themselves
and he had advised that the young man divorce his wife and then
Should one notify the staff that there is a patient remarry her a few days later, promising that the renewed marriage
with AIDS in their department? would be loving and harmonious. They even brought the husband a
forged letter with the rav’s signature and his advice.
1 Question Once she had her divorce in hand, the woman, of course, refused to
remarry him. The young man cried out bitterly against the wife who
To the Rav shlit”a, had deceived him so cruelly, saying, “I only divorced her based on the
The following question was raised by doctors and medical staff in forged letter and the knowledge that we would remarry afterwards.”
a certain hospital last year. For obvious reasons, all names and iden- Therefore, the divorce is null and void and invalid.
tifying details have been omitted. Thus there are not enough details The Ein Yitzchak explains that he was asked by Rav H. Dobresh
provided to elicit a specific halachic ruling for this case. This question Meisels, the Av Beis Din in Warsaw, for his comments on this difficult
should rather serve as an introduction to a discussion of the matter case. He ruled that the divorce is indeed null and void. His explana-
at hand. tion is as follows:
Two patients suffering from different medical problems were
hospitalized in the department of internal medicine. Both were di- If one divorces one’s wife because of a rumor, or because
agnosed with HIV, which is a criterion for the diagnosis of AIDS. she shows signs of infertility, this is only a suspicion, and
The symptoms they had were also present in patients who did not he should have investigated the matter. Since he did not
have AIDS. We took measures to prevent contagion from the sick do so, he must have already decided to divorce her…If he
patients. Gloves, sterile gowns, and masks were standard protocol at divorced her hastily, it must be that he had already decided
every blood drawing and intravenous infusion. to divorce her….This theory is alluded to in Rashi (masech-
The AIDS patients are not identified to the hospital workers and es Gittin 46a, s.v. taama), who writes that “since he did not

212 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein Divorce due to erroneous medical information 2 193

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