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disease to the authorities without being concerned that he may come
to danger is because any intelligent person who plans to commit rob-
bery and to swindle takes into account that he is liable to be caught.
Therefore, this heart patient probably also took this risk into account.
Now as the gemara states in Yoma (83a), “a person knows the extent
of his own ailment” and he apparently judged himself able to with-
stand the pressure [of capture] despite his diseased heart. [This idea
is echoed in the gemara’s ruling in Chullin (51a) that before jumping
from a height, a kid goat judges that it will be able to survive the jump
without getting killed.] Therefore, it is permitted to hand him over
without concern that he might be endangered.



Paying Compensation to a Storeowner who

Suffered a Heart Attack owing to Damage in his
Store

ɳ Question

A woman entered a store that sold antiques and picked up a Chinese
bowl worth several hundred dollars to examine it. The bowl fell from
her hands and broke. An argument ensued with the storeowner de-
manding compensation from the customer, who refused his demand
and disappeared from the store. During the argument, which under-
standably caused the storeowner considerable disappointment and
annoyance, he began to suffer aching in the area of the left eyeball
and the left ear but he was still able to function. The pains continued
for three days and on the fourth day after the altercation in the store
he was admitted to the Department of Neurosurgery in Rambam
hospital, Haifa, owing to an attack of generalized seizures and loss of
consciousness. He was later diagnosed as having a hemorrhagic brain
obstruction in the left temporal lobe. The patient, who was suffering
from impaired upper function, was given conservative treatment,

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