Page 386 - EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.1A

Pg: 386 - 13-Back 21-10-31

attaining their desire they had no need to continue living. This is not
gandrifas but is rather a warped way of viewing life and constitutes
denial of Divine Providence and of the World to Come.

[These comments are unrelated to the “respect for the deceased”
that should be shown them after their death, by the mourners ripping
their garments, by burying them etc. because the halachah is that in
this regard every honor must be shown them, so long as there is even
a slight chance that they might have done what they did as a result of
momentary derangement – as is explained in the Pis’chei Teshuvah
(Yoreh De’ah 345:2) unless it is abundantly clear that they acted while
in full possession of their faculties.]

However, the young woman described in our question attempted
to take her own life because of her mental instability, for her character
is such that she has a natural tendency toward suicide as the physician
testifies. In regard to piku’ach nefesh, the status of a young woman of
this type is like that of a patient suffering from gandrifas, in order to
cure whom Shabbos and Yom Kippur are desecrated. Even though in
regard to other Torah laws she is considered sane and intelligent and
she is obligated in mitzvos, is liable for punishments and her transac-
tions are valid, it is nevertheless permitted to violate prohibitions in
order to save her life, and the fetus that is aggravating her malady is
considered a rodef.

It appears further that even though in regard to all the Torah’s laws
a person is not presumed to be a shoteh unless he exhibits one of the
imbecilic behaviors three times e.g. he went out alone at night three
times, slept in a cemetery three times or tore his clothes three times –
as explained in Toras Gittin (above) and in the sefer, Tevuos Shor (1)
– in regard to gandrifas it is sufficient that he perform a single imbe-
cilic act to raise concern that he may be suffering from this condition.
This is because in order to class someone as a shoteh and deny him
his standing as being of sound mind, there must be three occasions
[when he has exhibited imbecilic behavior]. However, in regard to
gandrifas whose sufferers are considered sane in every respect but
whose lives we are concerned may be in danger, a single occasion
suffices. This is particularly so in the case of this young woman, who

370 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein