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the mother threatens suicide if the girl is taken away from her and
cries a lot and pleads that the girl should not be taken from her, to
refrain from taking action but instead to beseech Heaven in prayer
and may Heaven have mercy?

It should be noted that the mother is not at a sufficient level of
mental instability to require hospitalization. It should also be noted
that the mother opposes her daughter moving into a dormitory, as
well as receiving any kind of external help or assistance.

Dr. B. Miklah Pediatrician, Bnei Brak

ɳ Response

This is a difficult question and it was presented to one of the greatest
scholars of our generation shlit”a. His response was: “It is very diffi-
cult to ignore the mother’s tears, as well as the concern that she may
commit suicide and we cannot take any action in this matter but must
leave things as they are.”

I would like provide some explanation of this ruling:
The girl’s situation is not one of actual danger where we need to
worry that she may die from lack of nutrition or from beatings and
from being overworked. Neither does it appear that the mother will
force her to swallow any truly dangerous pills. On the other hand the
mother is threatening suicide if the girl is taken away. Although “It
is normal that people exaggerate their threats and do not act upon
them” as explained in Shavuos (46a), the Chafetz Chaim has written
(in Be’er Mayim Chaim, Hilchos Rechilus 9,12) that in the matters of
life and death we must be concerned about threats. This is exempli-
fied by the story of Gedaliah (Yirmiyahu, 40) who was told by Yona-
san ben Karei’ach that Yishmael ben Nesanyah wanted to kill him.
Yonasan acted correctly, for Gedaliah should have heeded what he
said because when it concerns danger to life even a remote possibility
is cause for concern.
It therefore appears that this differs from the case of the woman
who demanded that her son attend a non-Jewish school and write

240 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein