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vent him from sinning by beating his limbs. If they cannot stop him
by hitting his limbs, they can even take his life [i.e. kill him as a rodef].”

According to this, a criminal such as is portrayed above is constant-
ly liable for the death penalty and [even though we cannot impose
this penalty nowadays,] how can we give him a kidney?

The mishnah says in maseches Sanhedrin (37a-b): “Witnesses
who come to testify in a capital case are threatened [with the severe
consequences of testifying improperly in a capital case] before their
testimony is heard in beis din...” The mishnah concludes that if the
witnesses say,“Why should we risk this trouble [i.e. being responsible
for the defendant being unjustly put to death]?” we tell them that
the Torah says, “If he fails to testify [that which he saw] he will bear
his sin” (Vayikra 5:1).” “And if they say, ‘Why should we guilty of his
being put to death [even justly]? [We would rather be guilty of (the
lesser crime of ) not testifying – (Rashi).], it has already been written,
‘With the destruction of the wicked there is joy’ (Mishlei 11:10). [If
he is wicked no punishment is incurred for having him put to death
–Rashi.] The Metzudas David (ibid.) explains that joy is occasioned
when the wicked perish “because while they live they harm other
people.” We too can say this in regard to withholding a kidney from a
person who while alive, harms other people.

It’s possible to ask on this argument that the criminal can be incar-
cerated in jail he won’t be able to commit all these sins and can then
be considered a candidate for a transplant.

The answer to this is that even if we can assume that it is so [i.e. he
will no longer sin while in prison], there are still other patients who
take precedence over him for the kidney. For as long as he has not
repented, any other Jew has their life saved before him, as is evident
from the mishnah at the end of maseches Horayos (13a). It is clear that
in the case of a wicked Jew such as this, every other Jew has priority
over him when it comes to having his life saved. See Shulchan Aruch
(Yoreh De’ah 251:1): “There is no obligation to support or to extend a
loan to an intentional sinner who transgresses any of the mitzvos in
the Torah and has not repented.” The Shach (ibid.) writes: “The [use
of the] word ‘sinner’ implies that he is a habitual sinner... and this is

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