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a living animal to a non-Jew, or who gives him bad advice, such as
telling him to eat forbidden foods, thus steering him from the path of
virtue to the path of sin, or who advises him unsoundly, telling him
to sell his field and buy a donkey – in all these cases, he is actively
placing a stumbling block before somebody else.

However, a physician who answers a woman’s question and gives
her the correct medical facts without lying to her is not considered to
be putting a stumbling block before her – all he is doing is failing to
prevent her from sinning by lying. This is like a person who could pre-
vent a thief from stealing by blocking his path but fails to do so. He
cannot be considered as“putting a stumbling block” before the robber.

It is indeed a worthy endeavor to block the path of people who
want to sin, as part of the mitzvah of “Love your colleague as [you
love] yourself ” (Vayikra 19,18) and because“all Jews are responsible for
one another.” However, it is not possible to obligate anyone to spend
his money on preventing sinners from sinning. It is therefore possible
that in our case too, the physician is not obligated to lie – if doing so
is liable to harm his standing or his livelihood – in order to prevent
the woman from sinning.

An example of this rationale can be found in the Torah, in the law
of a thief who comes in stealth to steal [whom the householder is
allowed to kill, owing to the thief ’s assumed awareness that the owner
will not stand idly by and presumed intention of killing him if he
interferes]. The Torah does not require the householder to forego his
belongings in order to spare the robber’s life and he is allowed to kill
him. This is because the house owner is not expected to forfeit his
property in order to spare the thief from the punishment his conduct
has earned him, as explained in Kovetz Shiurim (on Pesachim 2b, see
there).1 Here too, the physician is not expected to lie, saying some-
thing that is liable to harm him and his livelihood, in order to save the
woman from sinning.

1. See earlier, at the end of siman 109, where we cite the elucidation of this difficul-
ty advanced by Rav Abramsky zt’l, according to which this halachah does not
provide any proof to our case.

262 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein