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to endanger the life of one person if there is only a slight chance of 14 saved. We will thus have retrieved those whose chance of being saved
saving another. One can only endanger himself for results. If endan-
gering himself will not bring about results, he should not do so.
In view of the above, if the armored personnel carrier is in enemy
territory, and does not increase its danger by approaching the burn-
ing tank, then they are certainly obligated to come closer and to try
to save the lives of the soldiers in the tank. However, if the APC is
endangered by coming closer to the tank and he exposes himself to
enemy fire, they are probably not obligated to do so. Even though
we do not follow the law of the majority in cases of pikuach nefesh
and one desecrates Shabbos even for a small chance of saving lives,
this applies only to the suspension of Shabbos or other mitzvos of the
Torah. But in regard to the danger to the life of a person, it does not
apply to say that in pikuach nefesh we do not follow the rule of the
majority, because the reason for this principle is the tremendous value
that the Torah places on a Jewish life. If so, we should not endanger
the lives of the rescuers because of the small chances of saving lives of
the wounded, since we also value the lives of the rescuers.
If there was a medical team in the personnel carrier, there is an
additional reason not to endanger them for only a small chance of
success in saving lives. The Mishnah Berurah rules (#334:68): Two
people are trapped in a burning house. One is healthy and the other
is dangerously ill or wounded, and it is not possible to save both of
them. The healthy one comes first. From this we learn that if a physi-
cian can save a moderately ill or wounded person or attempt to save a
dangerously ill or wounded person who it may not be possible to save,
he should treat the moderately ill or wounded person first, because
we have to save those who are more likely to be saved. The same logic
applies in our case. To our sorrow, soldiers are wounded in war, and
they must be similarly triaged. Therefore, we should devote our first
efforts to those wounded soldiers whom we are more confident will
survive and afterwards try and save the others.
Therefore, if G-d forbid, members of the medical staff will be
wounded, this will endanger the lives of those wounded that can be
394 1 Medical-HalacHic Responsa of Rav ZilbeRstein
is minimal and lost those who could be definitely saved.
The well known halacha is that we are commanded to desecrate
Shabbos for the ambulance or the physician to return to the station,
because of the possibility that they will be called again on that Shabbos.
Likewise, in our case, we have to protect the medical team carefully, to
ensure that they return safely, lest they be needed again.
We still need to address the question from a different viewpoint.
It is known that going to war with a feeling of fear and weakness of
spirit is likely to end in danger to the people of Israel as a whole, as
explained below. If so, one can say that if the soldiers known that if
they are wounded they will be saved at any price, they will fight with
vigor. But if they know that at times when the chances of saving them
are small, they will be left to fend for themselves, they will fight in
fear. It’s possible that for this reason, we are obligated to endanger
ourselves to save them, not because of the obligation to save lives but
because of concern of danger to the nation of Israel.
Let us examine how great is the danger caused by fear.
In Melachim 2 (6:15-18) it says that the King of Aram sent a large
army to surround the city of Dothan, where the prophet Elisha was
present:
And when the servant of the man of G-d had arisen early and gone
forth, behold there was a host with horses and chariots surrounding
the city, and his servant said to him: Woe, my Master! What shall we
do? He answered: Fear not, for those who are with us are more than
them and those with them. And Elisha prayed and said: Hashem,
open his eyes so that he can see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the
young man and he saw. Behold, the mountain was full of horses and
chariots of fire round about Elisha and they came down to him. Then
Elisha prayed unto the Lord and said: Please smite these people with
blindness. And he smote them with blindness, according to the word
of Elisha.”
The question arises: Why did Hashem perform the first miracle,
to open the eyes of the young lad who saw the mountain filled with
horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha? The second miracle
Saving the wounded when chances are slim 2 395