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her mother’s custody unless our estimate is clear beyond any doubt,
for example if the girl had been bitten on her back, in a place where
for it is impossible for a person to bite himself.

Neither is it possible to remove the girl from her mother’s jurisdic-
tion because she gave her sleeping pills because there is no clear dan-
ger in doing so. Therefore we must do everything possible through
neighbors and friends to speak gently to the mother and threaten her
[with her daughter’s removal] but it is difficult to [actually] take her
daughter away from her.

If however, witnesses would come and testify before us that the
mother hit her daughter cruelly, we would have to remove her from
her mother’s custody despite the slight chance of the mother commit-
ting suicide, for that is not the girl’s fault – must she endanger herself
because there is a chance that her mother might commit suicide?!
She must therefore be taken away. Were we to know for sure that
the mother would commit suicide it would be forbidden to take the
daughter away from her; it would be a Torah obligation to instead
find a woman to watch over the daughter – for payment – and ensure
she is not harmed.

ɳ Summary and Conclusions

1. If it is clear that the mother has cruelly beaten her daughter, the
girl should be removed from her custody and the mother’s suicide
threats need not be taken seriously. However, if it is clear to us that
the mother will commit suicide it is forbidden to remove the girl away
from her mother but supervision must be provided for the girl.

2. If nobody has actually seen the mother beating her daughter
but we judge that this is what happens, this is not sufficient basis for
taking her away from her mother, for there is possible danger to life
on the mother’s part as well and we have to refrain from taking action.
All we can do talk to the mother and try to persuade her not to hit her
daughter and may Heaven have mercy.

242 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein