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explained in maseches Sanhedrin (73a). Since in regard to returning
lost property, a Jewish daughter is under no obligation to disgrace
herself and profane her soul in order to return a lost item, it is exactly
the same here – she has no obligation to disgrace herself in order to
restore a patient to life by satisfying his desires.3 Since she has no such
obligation, it is possibly forbidden because of licentiousness and the
prohibition of having relations without marriage.

Now, Rashi explains the gemara’s words “and [he] became heart-
sick” as meaning: “it atrophied on account of his great love; his heart
became blocked and became sick,” because of which the physicians
said that his only cure would be to have relations with her. I asked Dr.
Yigal Gatt, Head of the Fertility Dept. and Dr. Koznitz, a specialist
in cardiology, at Beilinson Hospital, how they understand Rashi’s
comments in modern medical terms. They responded as follows:

In situations of very prolonged pressure, stress, depression
etc., the body manufactures and secretes adrenaline from
the adrenal gland, which is located next to the kidney. One

3. See earlier, siman 129, regarding the topic,‘Must a Person Endure Pain and Do-
nate Blood in Order to Save Someone Else?’ There we cite the opinion of the
Chochmas Shlomo (in his Notes to Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat #426),
that if a person sees someone drowning and in order to save him he will have
to embarrass himself in public, which does not befit his standing, he is exempt
from rescuing him. This is because the obligation to rescue a fellow Jew is de-
rived from the obligation to restore his lost property, as explained in Sanhedrin
73a) and just as if he is “an elder, or it is beneath his dignity” he is exempt from
returning the lost item, he is similarly exempt from rescuing his colleague under
these circumstances. We note there that many authorities take issue with this
view and are of the opinion that a person must save his colleague’s life even at the
expense of embarrassing himself in public, see there. In our case however, it ap-
pears that all would agree that the woman has no obligation to become damaged
and disgraced in order to satisfy the man’s desire, for whereas disrobing in public
in order to jump into the river to save another person is only an ‘embarrassment’
because of social consensus, our case involves something that the Torah declares
to be a ‘disgrace,’ for the Torah stresses the severity of damaging and shaming an
unmarried maiden, likening the crime to murder, writing, “and to the maiden
nothing shall be done…for as when a man rises up against his colleague and
murders him, so is this matter.” (Devarim 22:26)

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