Page 299 - EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.1A

Pg: 299 - 10-Back 21-10-31

refute this charge], hiding his true condition. The beis din did not
investigate any further and based on the wife’s arguments, awarded
her a large amount of support, to be paid by her invalid husband who
subsisted solely on his welfare allowance.

When the husband received the beis din’s ruling some two weeks
after his surgery, the valve and bypass he had just received almost
burst, and he nearly died!! Several weeks later, after he had recovered
from the operation, he sent his lawyer to beis din in order to refute
the lies his wife had told about him. The beis din immediately can-
celled their ruling.

My question is: How is the beis din supposed to handle such a sit-
uation? Was it permitted to summon a sick patient to appear before
them?

Dr. R. Meir

ɳ Response to Question Two

There was a case involving a pregnant woman who was summoned
to beis din and asked that the hearing be postponed because the pro-
ceedings caused her distress and involved quarreling, which she was
concerned might lead her to miscarry her fetus. In Choshen Ha’ephod
(43), Rav David ben Pipano writes that although we do not find
anywhere that our Sages ever held up ruling on a dispute because a
woman was pregnant, in a case where risk and a danger of abortion
exist, as she claims, it seems clear that the hearing should be delayed
until after she has given birth. Since Shabbos and Yom Kippur are
set aside in order to save a fetus, all the more should a hearing be
postponed for this reason.1

In light of this, this should be the ruling here too, in the case de-
scribed in Question Two, and the hearing should be postponed for
some later date when he is feeling better. In maseches Makkos (22b)

1. See our discussion of this topic earlier, siman 51, in regard to a complaint to the
management about a nurse, who was pregnant at the time.

Handling Unhealthy Criminals 2 283