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show, that so that she should not abort, and by calling two invalid
witnesses to witness the “marriage.” Although the rabbi would con-
duct the ceremony innocently, in ignorance of this deceit, following
the birth he would show, through the witnesses to his declaration and
the invalid marriage witnesses, that he had staged a ruse in order to
stop her aborting the child.

I would like to know whether this deceitful plan should be encour-
aged in order to save the fetus’s life?

Dr. Gerstein, Director, Laniado Hos-
pital of Netanya, Israel

ɳ Response to Question Two

It’s important to realize that holding a wedding which one later
intends to demonstrate was insincere (Dr. Gerstein’s question) is
problematic in regard to two Torah prohibitions: 1. falsehood (lying);
2. reciting blessings in vain. It might however, be permitted to violate
both of them in order to prevent an abortion which involves piku’ach
nefesh of the fetus, which sets aside all Torah prohibitions (except
for the cardinal three: idolatry, immorality and murder). If it were
possible to recite the blessings of betrothal and marriage by reading
them from a ‘gemara’ in the manner of Torah study that would be
preferable, since some authorities are of the opinion that when read
as though one is learning the prohibition of making a blessing in vain
is not violated.

Now, in the sefer Eitz Chaim by the Torah Sages of Amsterdam, the
case is related of a man who became deathly ill and the physicians said
that he would be cured by drinking the milk of a she-ass, however he
refused. His son came and cunningly told his father,“I’ve brought you
goat milk, which is also a good cure” [when it was actually milk from
an ass]. The father responded, “If it is goat’s milk, let my son drink
some of it and I will see if it is as you say.” The son cunningly told his
father,“Father, you should know that since I heard you were ill I have
been fasting and I can’t drink during the day but only at night.” In the
meantime the son came before the Torah scholars of the Etz Chaim

338 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein