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beginning of the war, but has risen as the number of truly urgent calls The case in question is similar to a rabid dog. There is a mere pos-
has decreased.
My questions are:
1. Is it permissible to answer the phone on Shabbos in order to
provide this therapy?
2. If there is a missile attack on Shabbos, and we are supposed to
open the clinics, can the staff drive their private cars or ride taxis
to the clinics?
I know of cases where people died of heart attacks caused by the
pressure of the war.
Dr. P. Rubiroth, Community Center for
Mental Health, Jaffa
Director of the pediatric and toddler mental health clinic
1 AnsweRs
Fear is halachically viewed as a danger to life, and one desecrates Shab-
bos for it, especially in cases involving babies and children. It says in
Tractate Yoma (84b) and in the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim #328:13,
Mishnah Berurah 38): “If a door was locked, with a child inside, one
breaks down the door and takes him out… lest the child be terrified
and die.” This shows us that fear in a child is viewed as pikuach nefesh.
Fear can be considered a danger for adults as well. As explained
in Tractate Shabbos (151b), it is forbidden to sleep in a house alone.
The Meiri adds that likewise, anything that will cause a person to
experience fear is forbidden. A person knows, according to his nature,
what will cause him to be afraid. Nonetheless if he finds himself
in that sort of situation he should fortify himself with bitachon in
Hashem. It seems that the reason why it is forbidden to place oneself
in a situation of fear is because this is a danger to life, and the Torah
warns us to safeguard our lives.
In Responsa Tzofnas Pane’ach (Vol. 1 #39), it says: A person who
is frightened at a time of tumult from gentile armies or thieves is
allowed to violate Shabbos prohibitions and to flee, even if there is no
272 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein
sibility that it is a rabid dog, coupled by the mere possibility that it
will bite someone. We do not hurry to desecrate the Shabbos in such
a situation, and therefore they should also not perform an autopsy on
the dead woman.

Starting the Engine of an Ambulance on Shabbos
so that it is Ready for Immediate Departure
1 Question
In one of the Israeli neighborhoods there is a Magen David Adom
station with an ambulance prepared to service many of the surround-
ing settlements. The engine needs to be turned on every few hours,
so that the battery and the starter not malfunction, in which case it
would take about an hour to fix them. The dispatcher wants to know
if it is permissible to start the engine every few hours on Shabbos,
since it is possible that an urgent call will come in suddenly from one
of the settlements, or, so long as they have not yet received such a call,
is it prohibited to start the engine?
1 AnsweR
It is probably prohibited, since there is no patient presently in need
in front of us. The Chazon Ish has established that (Tractate Oholos
#22:32) pikuach nefesh cannot be invoked for future events. We are
not experts about the future, and sometimes what we believe will be
life-saving is ultimately the reverse and boomerangs. Therefore, we do
not rule on possibilities of future events.
The Chazon Ish was already asked: How far is the limit of pikuach
nefesh? As stated in Sefer Pe’er Hador (Vol. 3, p. 185) he was asked: Is
one allowed to fix a fire-engine on Shabbos before the call comes in to
extinguish a fire, in a large city, such as Tel Aviv? He answered that
a Far-fetched Concern of Pikuach Nefesh 2 245
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