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this sin, she should still be healed when she is pregnant because of
her fetus.

Similarly, if efforts were made to influence her to improve but
these were unsuccessful and if the physician doesn’t treat her he will
be sued, which may result in him losing his job, he is allowed to treat
her. Extending this help to her is not considered a violation of “Do
not place a stumbling block before a blind man” (Vayikra, 19,14) be-
cause he is extending medical treatment to her, not an opportunity
to sin. His role is that of a person who can protest a wrongdoing but
does not protest, who bears guilt for that sin, yet a person is under no
obligation to lose his job so as not to refrain from protesting. This is
evident from the Rema (Yoreh De’ah, 334,48) who writes, “Although
a person is obligated to protest against sinners and whoever refrains
from protesting when he is able to bears guilt for that sin, a person
is nonetheless not obligated undertake expense in order to do so. It
is therefore customary to be lenient in regard to protesting against
sinners when there is concern that they will physically attack us or
our property”5.

However, the physician must be aware that [in such a case] he will
not have the mitzvah of healing a patient and that it is with difficulty
that permission is given to heal her. Neither is the principle “Who-
ever is occupied with one mitzvah is exempt from doing another”6
applicable in this case rather, only in healing a modest and upstanding
Jewish daughter.

ɳ Summary and conclusions

1. It is a mitzvah to save a sinful Jew who does not sin con-
stantly as a matter of course but only for his own grati-

5. See our comments further on, siman 286 ‘Response to Question One’ [the sec-
ond topic], citing Maharil Diskin who asserts that lifnei iver is not violated when
the iver exerts financial compulsion to provide him with the means of sinning.

6. This is discussed earlier, siman 1,‘Response to Question One.’

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