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under duress, as the priests constantly entice him to do and are there-
by willing to exempt him from death – this worries me and for this
we ought to give bribes, to take revenge so that his apostasy doesn’t
help him. For if this chas veshalom continues, every evildoer will do
as he wishes and will then opt for apostasy [in order to save his life].
It is therefore correct to make an effort to annul this by exacting ven-
geance [on Jewish criminals who apostatize to save their lives] and
then He will atone His land and His nation and we will be innocent
of any wrongdoing”6.



ɳ Summary and Conclusion

To Question One:
1. If the criminal’s transfer to the authorities can be post-

poned to some later time when he has recovered and the
physician knows that he will then be able to tolerate inter-
rogation without being endangered, this should be done.

If medication can strengthen him, he should be given it
so that his life shouldn’t be endangered. If his collapse can
be prevented by his speaking to therapists, this should be
done and the police should also be notified that the crim-
inal is a heart patient who should be handled accordingly.
2. If his remand into custody cannot be postponed and he
cannot be otherwise fortified, it is possible that it is per-
mitted to hand him over to the police and but it is in any
case correct to consult a Torah scholar before doing so.
3. The Igros Moshe forbids handing a robber over to the
police, though his comments probably don’t apply to a ha-

6. For a similar rationale see earlier, siman 274, citing the Yam Shel Shlomo (Git-
tin, Chap. 4, 72), who writes that if a thief is aware that the non Jews sentence
thieves to death by hanging there is no obligation to rescue him from them,
because he bears guilt for his own fate.

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