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On Friday night, the baby became sick and they took him to a medical the entire body, it is obvious that we must commence treatment im-
center for surgery. Is the mother, who is defined as a dangerously-ill mediately.
person for seven days after childbirth (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim We do not need to raise doubts based on the words of Shulchan
#330:4), and is very anxious about her baby, allowed to use the tele- Aruch (Orach Chaim #328:4) who writes that if one knows that no
phone on Shabbos to find out his condition? harm will be done by waiting, it is prohibited to desecrate Shabbos
We told her she was permitted to ask a gentile to phone a gentile for him even though it is an internal wound. Here too, we might say,
friend of his in the medical center to find out how the baby is faring. the physicians’ view is that there is no danger to life by putting off the
surgery until after Shabbos, but only danger to the eye itself. Nonethe-
I asked my father-in-law, Rav Y. S. Elyashiv: Had there not been less, this is not a contradiction to our words. The Mishnah Berurah
a gentile there, would it have been permissible for a Jew to desecrate (ibid,s.k.16) explains what the Shulchan Aruch’s words “no harm will
Shabbos in order to calm the woman who recently gave birth? It says be done by waiting” really mean. He writes: This means that they
that if the woman giving birth is blind, we turn on the light for her clearly recognize that the illness will not worsen as a result of their
on Shabbos. Even if the midwife has enough light to see what she is putting off treatment until after Shabbos. In our case, if one waits
doing, we are allowed to desecrate Shabbos in order to put the woman until nighttime the infection will become much worse. Therefore, it is
in labor at ease, so that she not worry that they are not taking care of permissible to desecrate Shabbos to treat the eye immediately and to
all her needs. cure the patient. The Beis Meir (#328:11) writes that one should hurry
My father-in-law answered that while we desecrate Shabbos if a and desecrate Shabbos immediatey, so that he more rapidly avoids the
woman after childbirth is anxious about her own life, we do not do danger.
so in order to mitigate her anxiety about her son. In light of this is Therefore, in Case 1 (endophthalmitis) and in Case 3 (an internal
would probably be forbidden, in our case, for the anxious parents to wound), it is permitted to desecrate Shabbos or Yom Kippur in order
call their son. to save him. We can add that even if it turns out that he could have
waited until after Shabbos or Yom Kippur, he has only transgressed
We could, however, differentiate between the two cases. While a the Sages adage that one should begin with the lighter form of des-
woman following childbirth is categorized as dangerously ill, only ecration, and for danger to an organ, it is permissible to violate a
one-in-a-thousand women dies from childbirth (as explained in the Rabbinic prohibition, as explained in Kiryas Sefer (Hilchos Maachalos
Maggid Mishnah, Hilchos Shabbos 2:1, in Mishnah Berurah #330:5). Assuros, Ch. 14).
Therefore, one performs the needs of the woman following childbirth
In Case 2 (retinal detachment), where there is no possibility of
on Shabbos, but in an unusual way. This is not the case for people who infection, but, rather, the loss of the eye, one should check if this ill-
have a heart condition, and the doctors believe that anxiety is liable ness is connected to the heart. It says in Tractate Avodah Zarah (28b)
to worsen their condition and to endanger their lives. These heart that if an eye is disengaged on Shabbos, one may treat it with kchol on
patients are allowed to make the call on Shabbos.
Shabbos, since “the working of the eye is dependent on the function of
When our Sarah Imeinu heard that Yitzchak was bound upon the heart.” Rashi explains that an eye that disengages from its socket
the altar, her soul departed (Bereishis 23:2, Rashi). If so, it is certainly is like a person who rebels and goes out. Perhaps retinal detachment
possible that parents who have a heart condition may become endan- is viewed as a form of disengagement of the eye. Perhaps one can also
gered from their anxiety about their son. combine this with the view of the Meiri (Avodah Zarah 28b) who
278 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein Shabbos in an Ophthalmology Department 2 303
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