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being in order to conceal his flaws does not apply to a Jewish slave,
since his body cannot be acquired forever, and he is just like a poor
person whom we have a mitzvah to sustain. The same applies to a
Jewish maidservant.
It goes without saying that it is permissible to adorn one’s daughter
in order to marry her off to an appropriate man, so that she find favor
in his eyes, even if she is ugly. There is a case in Tractate Nedarim (66a)
of a man who vowed to have no enjoyment from his sister’s daughter,
who was ugly. Rabi Yishmael brought her to his home and beautified Section 7:
her. Then he asked the man- Is this the girl whom you vowed not
to marry? No, the man responded. Rabi Yishmael permitted him to Medical Confidentiality -
take her. At the time, Rabi Yishmael cried and said: Jewish girls are
beautiful, but poverty makes them ugly. We learn from here that it is SHaring Information witH tHe
permissible to adorn a girl for purposes of marriage if she is ugly. If Patient
however, she has a blemish which disqualifies a woman for marriage,
and one beautifies her in order to hide this blemish, there is no great
deception against both him and her because. Ulitmately she will be
divorced and forced to leave without her kesubah in great shame.
It is doubtful whether an older woman is allowed to dye her hair,
as explained in the Gemara (Baba Metzia, 60b). It seems that this
can be a great deception if she is so old that she is no longer capable
of having children.
Several halachos can be learned from the words of the Yaavetz:
First, if a woman wants to work as a housekeeper and she is wor-
ried they may refuse to hire her since her hair is white, she is allowed
to dye her hair black in order to make a younger and stronger impres-
sion. There is no prohibition of deception in this case, since she is not
selling her body like a gentile manservant.
The Yaavetz adds and says that she is like a Jewish poor person and
it is a mitzvah to sustain her. This implies that the innermost desire
of every Jew is to do a mitzvah, as explained in the Rambam (Hilchos
Gerushin 2:20), who writes as follows: If someone for whom halacha
dictates that he must divorce his wife refuses to do so, beis din in all
places and at all times can hit him until he says “I want to do it,” and
then he writes the bill of divorce and it is kosher…. Why is this not

88 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein Colostomies 2 109