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whether or not an illness can be defined as a “great deficiency,” and
one which would deter the bride from marrying him.
I heard from my revered father-in-law, Rav Y. S. Elyashiv zt”l, that
a groom who has only one kidney is classified as “severely deficient”
and one is obligated to inform the bride of the deficiency. Although
he is healthy, strong, and fully functional, if he were to Heaven forbid
develop an infection in his remaining kidney, he would be in danger.
Therefore, his condition would be defined as “severely deficient.”
On the other hand, I heard that one should not tell a bride if her
groom has an ulcer, since the illness can be treated and cured. Even
though the patient is limited in what he can eat, he is nevertheless
classified as “weak” and not as “severely deficient.”
Diabetes is also significant since there is a possibility of sterility,
and I heard from my father-in-law, Rav Y. S. Elyashiv zt”l, that one is
obligated to reveal this illness.
In light of the above, it would be forbidden, in our case, to tell the
groom about the possibility of cosmetic effects such as weight-gain,
facial hair, and overall unattractiveness. Likewise, one should not re-
veal the possibility of an ulcer, menstrual abnormalities, perspiration
and cataracts in the eyes. One has to weigh each side-effect to decide
whether it is halachically classified as a “severe deficiency” or not.
You mentioned a possibility of 5% that the illness will become
malignant. Do you need to reveal this to the groom?
The answer to this question can be derived from the story of a
groom whose brother had epilepsy, which has a slight chance of a
hereditary component. Was one obligated to tell the bride about her
brother-in-law’s illness? Investigations proved that the exact chance
of hereditary transmission of epilepsy is only about 4%. One of the
great poskim ruled in the name of the Steipler that since the chances
are so slight, one should not tell the bride. The halacha in our case
would probably be the same, since the chance of malignant disease is
so slight.
According to condition three of the Chafetz Chaim above, if the
young man would marry her despite the physician’s concern, it is pro-
hibited to reveal this to him. Likewise, if the groom is aware that his

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