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from the account of the pious man that although in situations of
danger to life it is permitted to violate Torah prohibitions in order to
be cured through them, with something that is forbidden by force of
enactment out of concern for other people’s loss it is appropriate to
be extremely stringent.

These comments apparently teach us that when it comes to steal-
ing and possible loss to other people, danger to [an individual’s] life
should not be a factor and bringing a goat to use for healing cannot
be permitted despite the danger because piku’ach nefesh doesn’t set
aside an enactment instituted to prevent stealing. It therefore seems
that in our case too, a woman who is involved in crime and stealing
from the public should not be saved even if she is dangerously ill and
her condition is one of piku’ach nefesh. However, the two situations
are not similar to one another because there the remedy uses a small
animal, and raising it in the city involves stealing [therefore such a
cure cannot be permitted]. This is not the case with the aforemen-
tioned woman who, though she herself is involved in stealing, her
cure involves permitted measures and no proof whatsoever can be
adduced from the other case not to extend relief to her or to save her.
We have seen though that shepherds of small livestock“should not be
helped out of a pit” and we can surmise that she too is among those
who “should not be helped out of a pit.”

Rashi’s view (Bava Kama 60b) that a person may not save himself
by using another person’s property is known. There are also opin-
ions that stealing is among those sins about which it is said “a person
should allow himself to be killed rather than violate”2.

2. The topic of stealing in life threatening situations is explained elsewhere in con-
nection with several different cases: see earlier, siman 129 ‘Response to Question
Two’ in regard to drawing blood from a patient who believes that he is bene-
fitting when the blood is really needed by another patient; similarly, see siman
152, regarding an autopsy carried out for the purpose of monitoring treatment
that had been provided to the deceased patient; see further, the second topic in
siman 382, regarding stealing in order to avoid embarrassment that would lead
to suicide; see also further, siman 297 on the topic of conducting emergency
surgery to save a patient from a slight risk of danger when this will harm the

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