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However it needs to be considered whether, if the clerk doesn’t
honor his obligation and doesn’t repay, the lawyer will have to pay the
bank the thousand pounds that he extorted from them dishonestly,
according to the halachah of a person who steals in order to save a
life, whom Tosfos (ibid.) and the Rosh (Sanhedrin 8:2) write is obli-
gated to repay what he stole. Alternatively, perhaps only the person
who benefitted from the theft and was saved from danger must pay
but not the lawyer, who derived no benefit from the theft and who
was actually allowed to steal the money – perhaps he is exempt from
returning the money to the bank?

I put this question to my father-in-law Rav Y.S. Elyashiv zt”l, and
he responded that it is logical that the lawyer would have to pay be-
cause the lawyer was not allowed to steal in the first place in a manner
that the money would not be returned, only in the least severe man-
ner, namely with the intention that it would be returned.



Desecrating Shabbos in order to Prevent

Severe Suffering

Question: There was a case involving a man who arrived at hospital
on Shabbos writhing in pain. Tests showed that he was suffering from
an attack of the Herpes Zoster virus (shingles), which is known to
cause terrible pain but does not endanger the patient’s life. Is it per-
mitted to desecrate Shabbos in order to heal him?

Response: The Netziv in Harchev Davar (Shemos 4:3) writes:“We
learn in maseches Shabbos (29b): ‘A person who extinguishes a lamp
because he is afraid of gentiles, bandits, melancholy or in order to en-
able a patient to fall asleep, is exempt [from punishment].’ The gemara
explains that the “patient” mentioned by this mishnah is dangerously
ill and the lamp may be extinguished to begin with so that he can
sleep. Rashi writes that the other cases mentioned in the mishnah

384 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein