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nefesh. Rabbi Zechariah therefore would not allow the animal to be
sacrificed.

In this case too, we cannot know how long the butcher’s piku’ach
nefesh will last. It’s possible that after some time has passed his sui-
cidal intentions will dissipate, whereas the public hazard of his selling
non-kosher meat will continue, because he still holds the kashrus cer-
tificate, though there is no longer any justification for allowing this.

The Chasam Sofer (Even Ha’ezer, 2, 82) writes similarly regarding
the case of a woman who was eligible for yibum [Levirate marriage]
by a yavam who was only six years old and the physicians stated that
if she had to remain unmarried until he matured she would possibly
become ill and be endangered. The Chasam Sofer was asked whether
she could be allowed to remarry in violation of the prohibition, “The
wife of the deceased shall not marry outside [the family], to an out-
sider” (Devarim 25:5), owing to the risk of piku’ach nefesh? One of the
arguments he cites in his response is that the man who marries her
will transgress the prohibition multiple times each time they have re-
lations, whereas they were only allowed to marry in order to save her
life and who can judge which occasion is necessary for saving her life?!
If having relations once a month is sufficient and they have relations
twice a month, they will both be violating a Torah prohibition. And
if she recovers and her condition is cured who will then force him to
divorce her, and he will live with her in sin all her life.

The same logic apparently applies in the case of the butcher. His
suicidal intentions may pass but he will retain his kashrus certification
and will be responsible for the public’s consumption of non-kosher
meat, without there being any grounds for permitting this9.

It is not so in the case of the young woman, for she is unbalanced
and she cannot exercise her usual free will to overcome her natural
wish to commit suicide – as the physician attested, her nature is to
have definite thoughts. There are therefore grounds for allowing her
to have an abortion to prevent her suicide.

9. For more on this topic see earlier, siman 151, ‘the Prohibition on Conducting
Autopsies in Order to Draw Conclusions for Future Medical Use.’

364 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein