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sible that his trauma can be traced back to his parents who
endured the horrors of the Holocaust.

2. If the educational approach does not succeed he should
be treated with the aforementioned drugs. So it says in
the Sefer Chassidim (620): “A certain person engaged in
adultery and his relatives came to ask the Torah sage to
employ some measure to get him to stop this behavior. He
said, ‘I would feed him foods to remove his lust [such as
gudgadanios and tzipor hakramim – Mekor Hachesed] but
I have no right to do so because then he will be unable to
have relations with his wife. [This would be wrong] even
if he already has children and even if he currently has no
wife, he could always marry.’” From here we can learn that
it is permitted to administer medication to suppress desire
in a patient who has no wife and who will not be marrying
in the future.

3. Castration through mutilation of the reproductive organs
is forbidden by Torah law, as stated in the Shulchan Aruch
(Even Ha’ezer 5:11): “It is forbidden to harm the repro-
ductive organs, whether in humans, domesticated or wild
animals, or birds…. Anyone who castrates is flogged for
violating Torah law.”

4. Brain surgery to eliminate urges and lust is also forbidden
because it involves danger to life, since the patient is an
annus [is acting out of compulsion] and as such the Torah
exempts him. He should therefore not be endangered so
long as it is possible to keep him locked up [when neither
of the above methods – education or medication have
proven successful.]

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320 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein