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already has a past record of carrying out such threats, or if
the listener can tell from the situation that he will certain-
ly carry out his threat, he must warn Shimon about it.” In
the Be’er Mayim Chaim (12), the Chafetz Chaim raises the
possibility that “even if the listener doesn’t know Reuven
as someone who carries out his threats he may anyway be
obligated to warn Shimon. Now, the gemara [apparently
dismisses threats, for it] says in Shavuos (46a) that if Re-
uven threatens to cut down Shimon’s palm tree and tree is
then found cut down Reuven’s earlier threat is not sufficient
basis for extracting money from him, because people tend
to exaggerate and not follow through. The Taz also writes
(Choshen Mishpat 90:2, as do other Acharonim) that neither
is Reuven disqualified from serving as a witness because of
his threats. However in any event, we cannot ignore the
possibility that Reuven may harm Shimon and we should
be concerned about it and inform Shimon, and further de-
liberation is needed. Don’t [attempt to] bring proof from
[the case of ] Gedaliah ben Achikam – who was told by
Yochanan ben Korach that Yishmael ben Nesanyah wanted
to kill him and Yochanan acted correctly in telling him –
that [apparently] we don’t say ‘people exaggerate and do not
follow through,’ for when there is possible danger to life, we
are concerned even about the remotest risk.” Thus writes the
Chafetz Chaim, see there.

This apparently furnishes proof that we must be con-
cerned about the fetus’ life that is threatened by its mother’s
threat to abort it. However, this doesn’t prove that we will
desecrate Shabbos and commit other sins on the basis of
threats. All we see here is that the threatened party needs to
be informed, and this too requires further study.
2. [Rav Elyashiv’s second reason for forbidding a staged
wedding is that] the deceit will lead to desecration of
Heaven’s Name. This is a more serious sin that the three
cardinal sins, to avoid violating which a Jew must sacrifice

340 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein