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the murderer doesn’t deserve to die because his victim was a rodef
[pursuer], for even if he only hit him with his fist there are strong men
whose fists can kill.

Unlike the Chavos Yair, who was undecided, it is evident from the
comments of the Yaavetz that a murderer should not be saved. As to
the support adduced by the Chavos Yair with his rhetorical question,
“If an adulterer is drowning in the river should we not save him?!” the
Yaavetz did not consider this to be compelling proof. His reasoning
may be because the Torah writes,“If you see the donkey of the person
you hate crouching beneath his burden you shall surely help, together
with him” (Shemos, 23: 5). The Rambam writes about this (Hilchos
Rotzeiach Ushemiras Nefesh, 13:13-14): “The ‘hated one’ mentioned in
the Torah is not from the nations of the world [but a fellow Jew].
How can one Jew be hated by another Jew, when the Torah says,‘Do
not hate your brother in your heart?’ (Vayikra 19:17) The Sages said
that an example of this could be if he was the only one who saw his
colleague commit a sin and he warned him about it and he [i.e. the
sinner] didn’t retract, it is a mitzvah to hate him until he repents and
gives up his wickedness. Yet even though he has not yet repented, if
he finds him struggling with his load, it is a mitzvah to load up or to
unload with him, and he should not leave him close to dying – lest he
tarry because of his property and becomes endangered – for the To-
rah is concerned with the lives of Jews, whether wicked or righteous,
since they are part of the community [of Yisrael] and believe in the
main tenets of our faith, as it says,‘I promise, says Hashem, that I do
not desire the death of the wicked, rather that he should repent his
[wicked] ways and live’” ().

It is evident from the Rambam that Hashem yisbarach requires us
to come to the aid of the wicked too. According to the wording in
our gemara (Pesachim 113b), the sin that this evildoer [i.e. the don-
key’s owner] committed is some immoral deed. Thus, although we
have shown that an adulterer is on par with a murderer, in that it
is forbidden to save them from the authorities – as implied by the
aforementioned Sefer Chassidim and the Chavos Yair – the Torah

398 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein