Page 410 - EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.1A

Pg: 410 - 13-Back 21-10-31

there is still no allowance to steal the money of others be-
cause of the clerk’s dire circumstances.



The third point – Should criminals be protected and saved from
punishment?

We learn in maseches Niddah (61a), “There were certain Galileans
who were rumored to have killed someone. They came to Rabbi Tar-
fon and said to him, ‘Our master should hide us’ [i.e. from the king
who wanted to kill them]. He replied, ‘What should I do? If I don’t
hide you, they will see you. To hide you though would be acting con-
trary to the teaching of the Rabbanan that‘Even though slander must
not be accepted as fact, one should be heedful of it. [Rashi explains:
“Perhaps you have indeed killed and it is forbidden to save you.”]
[Therefore] go and hide yourselves.’” This is how Rashi understands
this passage of gemara.

The Rosh writes, “It is astonishing to say so – that if a rumor
spreads that a certain person has sinned it should therefore be forbid-
den to save his life. [Rather,] Rav Achai’s comments appear correct;
he explains in the She’iltos (end of parshas Shelach, she’ilta 129): ‘If
you have killed [and I hide you], the king, who has who has warned
against harboring murderers, could take my life’ [i.e. I would hide you
despite the doubt, would I not possibly be endangering myself by do-
ing so].” From the Rosh’s comments it seems that he also agrees that it
is forbidden to save the life of a [definite] murderer but he takes issue
with Rashi’s view that it is forbidden to save even a person who may
or may not have murdered.

The Maharshal too (Chochmas Shlomo, ibid.) writes that the
She’iltos agrees with Rashi that it is forbidden to save the life of a
definite murderer. He writes: “And even at a time when judgment of
capital cases [by beis din] has lapsed it is nevertheless forbidden to
save the life of a murderer, and thus may all Hashem’s enemies perish
[but] let our hands not touch them. [The reason why the author of
the She’iltos did not explain the gemara as Rashi did is] because it

394 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein