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non-kosher food for his own enjoyment – it is a mitzvah to save him
and it is forbidden to stand by when his life is in danger.’

It is evident from the Rambam’s comments that a sinner who clings
to his evil ways, who has no compunction about stealing and for whom
crime is a way of life, should not be helped out of a pit. However, we
still need to provide a precise definition of this individual who “clings
to his evil ways and for whom crime is a way of life.”

This is provided by the Chasam Sofer (6, 67) namely: this refers
to a person whose life is centered mainly on sin, it being his main
source of livelihood and he being firmly entrenched in it, similar to a
shepherd of small livestock.

Accordingly, a woman for whom sin is not the center of life and her
main livelihood must be healed, as mandated for a sinner. However, if
her life centers on the above sins and they provide her main livelihood
and she is entrenched in them and sinning has become her second
nature, she is governed by the same law as that of a shepherd of small
livestock.

Now, we learn in Bava Kama (79b): “Small livestock [e.g. sheep,
goats] must not be raised in Eretz Yisrael [because of the settlement
of the Land, for they ruin the fields – Rashi] but they may be raised
in the forests.” The gemara later (80a) says: “The Sages learned: It
happened that a certain pious man was groaning from his heart [he
was crying out from pain in his heart and could not revive himself –
Rashi] and they consulted physicians who said, ‘The only remedy is
for him to suckle hot milk every morning.’ They brought him a goat
and tied it to the leg of his bed and he suckled its milk every morning.
One day, his friends came to visit him. When they saw the goat tied
to the leg of the bed they recoiled and said ‘There is an armed bandit
[that grazes on other people’s fields and robs the public – Rashi] in
this fellow’s house and shall we go inside?!’ They undertook an inves-
tigation and found that he was guilty of no other sin besides that of
keeping that goat. As he was dying, the man too said, ‘I know that I
am guilty of no sin besides the sin of that goat whereby I violated my
colleagues’ words.’”

The Meiri writes (cited in Shitah Mekubetzes ibid.), “We learn

248 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein