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to confess using the rod or excommunication. We learn from here that 1 SuMMaRy and Conclusions
only a judge is allowed to flog based on an assumption. The Chafetz
Chaim concurs (Rule 7, Be’er Mayim Chayim 31).
The Rama (Choshen Mishpat #75:17) also wrote that “Some poskim
rule that one makes another take an oath of exemption for a claim
when there is basis for the suspicion. For example, if Shimon was in
Reuven’s house, and Reuven found his chest broken and whatever was
in it removed, and he suspected Shimon, he could make him swear
that he did not take it. The Pischei Teshuvah (ibid., 100:19) writes how
the Shach once entrusted the Gaon Rav Heschel with a golden chain.
The two agreed to torture the suspect somewhat in order to extract
his confession, but forbade handing him over to the gentile author-
ities unless three G-d-fearing and money-despising Torah scholars
would agree to do so.
Now we come to the second question. A physician is suspected of
stealing, and the administration of the hospital asks whether or not
they can dismiss him. According to what we said above, one cannot
fire him on the basis of circumstantial evidence. It is also forbidden
to publicize that he is a thief. However, the beis din has the authority
to do whatever they deem urgent or essential in order to determine
whether he is guilty.
If indeed the beis din investigates and determines that he is a thief,
they should find a way to prevent him from stealing without firing
him. For example, they should let him know that the hospital is about
to install a system of security cameras.
If these ruses do not help and he continues to steal, it seems to
me that it is forbidden to fire him because his work [as a physician]
is essential and borders on pikuach nefesh, which sets aside the entire
Torah, including the prohibitions against stealing, if there is no expert
like him available. Proof for this is the Gemara in Gittin (36a), which
tells about a teacher of young children who hit his young students
hard. As a result, he was fired from his job and they made him vow
publicly that he would no longer teach Torah to children. Afterwards,
the beis din had to release him from his vow and return him to his job
because no other teacher knew how to teach as precisely as he did. All
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1. If the patient has no intention of telling the woman he is about
to marry about his illness, the physician should do so, in spite
of the physician’s oath, because he was already sworn at Mount
Sinai to uphold the entire Torah, including the injunction “Do
not stand idly by the blood of your fellow.”
2. If the woman knows of the illness but is still willing to marry
him, the rav is allowed to perform the ceremony.
3. The observance of family purity is a shield against illness and
disease.
4. If the patient needs dental treatment and plans to hide his
illness from the dentist, one is obligated to reveal this to the
dentist, so that he will save himself and others from contracting
AIDS.
5. Under no circumstances should one provide needles for narcot-
ic injections, and one is not to help them in any way and “Feed
the wicked and he will die.”
6. One should not publicize to the public the name of the AIDS
patient who states that he wants to infect as many people as he
can, but one should publicize that Hashem has prepared pun-
ishment for sinners, and that death lingers at the gate of sin.
The Torah is a tree of life to those who embrace it and he who sup-
ports is praiseworthy.
Sinner contracted contagious disease 2 369