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because every person has desires and we need to find out what each
patient’s desires are and use them as a bargaining chip.

The following story is told about the Rebbe, Rav David of Tolna.
A woman came to him who was acting irrationally and refusing to
sit on a chair for she said that if she sat on a chair it would shatter
and she would fall and be killed. She had therefore been standing
on her feet all day and was on the verge of a breakdown. The Rebbe
gave instructions to prepare a chair with a seat of glass upon which
upholstered wood was to be placed. When the woman arrived the
Rebbe instructed her to sit on the chair and she refused, whereupon
women took hold of her and sat her down forcibly. The glass plate
shattered and the Rebbe cried out, “The trap is broken and we have
escaped in the Name of Hashem! From now on nothing untoward
will happen!” The woman accepted this and was cured. These are the
ways in which righteous men are able to influence shotim (imbeciles),
like Shlomo Hamelech of whom it is said,“He became wiser than any
other person” (Melachim I, 5:11) – including the shotim.

There was the case of a young man who started acting irrational-
ly and was afraid to pick up anything that had fallen onto the floor
because he worried that perhaps while bending down he would have
in mind that he was bowing down to an idol. This would render it
forbidden to derive any benefit from the flooring, in accordance with
the halachah of an object that has been worshipped. This greatly
distressed the young man and he sent a letter to the Kehillos Yaakov
asking what to do. The reply, which is published in Karaina D’igarta
(3,137), reads as follows: “In regard to bowing down Rachmana litzlan
[may the merciful One spare us], you should declare all your belong-
ings hefker (ownerless) [except for his tallis and tefilin] and this need
not be done before three other people. The halachah then is that, ‘A
person cannot render something which is not his forbidden.’ And re-
garding the actual [idolatrous] thought, pay it no attention, just ask…
‘Master of the Universe, please save me from idolatrous thoughts,’ for
giving them any particular attention will only lead to worse confusion
Rachmana litzlan.”

The Kehillos Yaakov did not mock the young man and tell him he

226 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein