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it was the eve of Yom Kippur, and the Satan appeared as a poor man tail,” the gentile answered. “How is that possible?” asked the Kohanim.
and called out at his door. So, the bread was taken out to him. On They investigated the matter and found that he was an Aramean, and
this day, the Satan pleaded, when everyone is home at the table, shall killed him. The Chasam Sofer explains that the kohanim knew with
I be alone? He was led inside and sat down at the table. His body certainty that Rav Yehudah ben Beiseira was not a jester, for if so he
was repulsive, as it was covered with festering sores, and he behaved would be violating the sin of “Do not wrong one another.”
repulsively. “Sit properly”, Plimo rebuked him. “Give me a glass of li- The Chasam Sofer then concludes: Even if Shimon, the mohel, 6
#
quor,” he responded, and one was given him. He coughed and spit his lived in the same village as Reuven, and Reuven would fool him into
phlegm into it. They scolded him. coming to the synagogue as a mohel, only to discover that there is
We see from here that when the Satan wanted to disgust Plimo, no boy to circumcise, Reuven would have violated the prohibition of
he did things similar to the old man in our case. This teaches us that “Do not wrong….” (All the more so if he caused the mohel to travel
such actions are repulsive, and those who claim they cannot be near for four hours unnecessarily.) The Sages highlight the severity of this
the old man are justified. act, comparing this prankster to an idol-worshipper. As explained
Regarding the question of whether or not he should be transferred in Tractate Baba Metzia (59a): For three, the curtain is not closed: a
to the nursing-care ward, in spite of the fact that the adjustment deceiver, a thief, and an idol-worshipper.
would be difficult for him, and his overall condition may worsen, it The second sin committed here, writes the Chasam Sofer, is that
seems to me that he should be transferred. As I wrote in the name of Reuven caused Shimon a monetary loss. If one hires a worker to do a
my father-in-law, Rav Y. S. Elyashiv zt”l, moving the old man else- job and it turns out that there is no job to be done, he is obligated to
where is not viewed as spilling his blood. In our case the answer is pay him. (The Sages do not deal with wicked people who deceive and
even clearer, since the institution is a private one and is not obligated sin and lie, but refer rather to someone who hires a worker with good
to lose money in order to keep the old man if it affects their income intentions, thinking mistakenly that he has work for him.) Someone
and the welfare of the other residents. who hired a worker to perform a mitzvah for him, such as a mohel
to circumcise his son, the fee for circumcision is ten gold pieces. It
1 SuMMaRy and Conclusion is beyond our ability to evaluate the fee for the effort or travel for
the mitzvah. However, nowadays, (when we have no qualified and
One should move the elderly man to the nursing ward. anointed beis din) we do not take this money from him. However, we
can excommunicate him until he appeases his co-litigant. Once he
pays him what is coming to him (close to the amount of damage he
caused) we release him from excommunication.
Since we do not have the legal right to excommunicate him, the
law is to banish him from the synagogue, and not to circumcise his
sons, and not to bury him if he dies, and to expel his children from
school and his wife from the synagogue, until he accepts the ruling (as
explained in Rama, Yoreh De’ah #334:6).
And certainly, if Reuven is guilty of the sin of “Do not wrong one
another,” one can dismiss him from his profession until he appeases
154 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein Transferring his Wife Against Her Wishes 2 171
