Page 392 - EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.1A

Pg: 392 - 13-Front 21-10-31

We find a similar question in the sefer, Etz Chaim1 concerning
the following case: A dangerously ill patient was instructed by his
physicians to drink donkey’s milk as a cure but he refused. They then
told him to drink goat’s milk instead and told his son to trick his
father and give him donkey milk, pretending it was from a goat. The
father, who suspected deceit, said to his son, “First you drink from
the milk and then I’ll drink it.” The son asked Rav Y. Sarok whether
he should drink the milk in order to save his father’s life, and the
rav responded that he should not, explaining that this case did not
resemble the regular halachah of piku’ach nefesh because the patient
had an obligation to drink the donkey’s milk, and if he wanted to
commit suicide unnecessarily what could the son do about it?

Applying this rationale to our case, we can conclude that the pro-
hibitions against lying and stealing should not be violated in order to
save those who want to commit suicide.

We find similarly in the Teshuvos Melemed Leho’il (1,61) the case of
a boy whose father demanded that he attend a writing class at trade
school on Shabbos. When the boy refused to do so his mother told
him that if he didn’t obey his father this would lead to discord in
the house and she would commit suicide. The boy wanted to know
whether he had to listen to his father because of his mother’s pi-
ku’ach nefesh. The answer he received was that this is not the type
of piku’ach nefesh for which Shabbos is desecrated, for the mother
was intentionally threatening suicide in order to get her son to com-
promise his religious principles. If we take the mother’s threat into
consideration all inciters to sin will threaten to throw themselves into
the ocean unless their incitement is accepted. The responsa of Yehu-
dah Yaaleh (Even Ha’ezer, 140) writes too that a chalutzah cannot be
allowed to marry a kohen despite concern that they may apostatize
[which is more serious than taking one’s life] if we refuse to hold a
Jewish wedding for them.

According to this approach, the halachah that “a thief who breaks

1. The topic is discussed at length earlier, siman 281.

376 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein