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The Iggros Moshe also adds that if a healthy person is caring for a #
patient whose illness is contagious and he needs a vaccination in order
to prevent contagion from the patient, he is allowed to be vaccinated
even if it involves desecration of Shabbos. It is known that the Gaon,
PATIENT PHONES
Rav Yisrael of Salant zt”l, instructed people to eat on Yom Kippur at
101 PHYSICIAN ON SHABBOS, a time when cholera was rampant, in order to avoid contracting the
COMPLAINING OF
contagious disease.
SEVERE BACK-PAIN. THE
Although there is a slight possibility of rejecting the proof of
PHYSICIAN FEELS IT IS the Iggros Moshe, by claiming that tsafdina in the teeth and in the
NOT DANGEROUS intestines are one and the same disease, which begins in the mouth
and ends up in the intestines; it thus emerges that the disease in the
mouth is the beginning stage of the intestinal illness. We have not yet
seen that if mild disease is likely to lead to a dangerous disease, we can
already view the patient as being endangered? Nonetheless, it seems
1 Question Physician discounts possible dangeR of back-pain that the words of the Iggros Moshe are clear. 20818_efi-ab - 20818_park-C_efi-ab | 9 - A | 18-08-20 | 13:46:24 | SR:-- | Magenta
However, I found that another Gaon seems to say the opposite. The #20818_efi-ab - 20818_park-C_efi-ab | 9 - A | 18-08-20 | 13:46:24 | SR:-- | Yellow 20818_efi-ab - 20818_park-C_efi-ab | 9 - A | 18-08-20 | 13:46:24 | SR:-- | Black 20818_efi-ab - 20818_park-C_efi-ab | 9 - A | 18-08-20 | 13:46:24 | SR:-- |
A patient phoned his physician on Shabbos complaining of back-pain Gilyon Mahara’i (of Rav Avraham Yonah Jewnin, z”l, from Horadna,
the likes of which he had never felt before. The patient was sure the printed at the end of the Mishnayos, Zera’im, Vilna edition) writes
severe pain stemmed from a dangerous illness. The physician knows that we learn in Tractate Berachos (Ch. 5:1): Even if a snake is wound
the patient and his condition well. He believes that these severe pains around his ankle, he should not interrupt his prayer, to which the
are due to a benign disease that the patient has, and that there is no Rambam explains (in his Mishnah Commentary, ibid) that in most
pikuach nefesh involved. Does he have to nonetheless take the patient’s cases the snake does not bite. The Acharonim wonder (see Rashash,
view into account and desecrate Shabbos in order to treat him? ibid, and in his Chiddushim on Berachos 33a; Responsa Shoe’l Umeis-
Dr. Moshe Rothchild hiv, first edition, Vol. 1 #254): We do not follow the majority when it
We received another similar question: comes to pikuach nefesh. Should we not, then, be concerned about the
In middle of the week, a doctor was asked to see a patient who was minority of snakes who bite?
suffering from severe headaches. He examined the patient thoroughly The Gilyon Mahara’i answers (in the Gilyon of the Mishnah, there),
but found nothing. He gave him medication to relieve the pain and as follows:
calm him, but nothing more. The patient insisted that his pain was In my humble opinion, regarding all these matters, one should
due to an internal disease, and asked for a referral to the hospital in not look at what has not yet occurred, but only at what there is at
order to do extensive testing. that time. This is like a patient who is not in danger, where we have
The physician would like to know whether Torah law requires him no right to desecrate Shabbos for him even though there is concern
to reckon with the possibility of a dangerous illness? that his present disease will lead to another disease which will put
Dr. Dov Ehrlich him in danger. If we desecrate Shabbos for him now, we may prevent
Specialist in Family Medicine, Bnei Brak him from contracting another disease. In my humble opinion, the

266 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein Non-Dangerous Disease 2 251