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and woe to he whose sons are females.” Generations after generation
of Torah scholars has grappled with the words “Woe to he whose
sons are females,” for the word“sons” (banav) is masculine, so how can
“his sons” refer to females?!

In light of the bizarre situation to which our question refers, it is
understood, for this fellow’s sons become “females.” Would that they
had been real females, for they have not merited that either, but are
just female look-alikes, Rachmana litzlan.

Thus far we have discussed the six prohibitions involved in such
surgery. The surgeon violates the prohibitions of castration and of
inflicting injury and the young men undergoing the surgery also vio-
late these sins. The other prohibitions are violated by the young men
and by whoever is party to these sins, while the physician violates
“Do not put a stumbling block before a blind man,” (Vayikra 19:14) by
involving them in these sins.

We shall now discuss the second topic: Does an attempted suicide
create a situation of piku’ach nefesh, allowing a physician to violate
Torah prohibitions in order to save the life of the attempted suicide
or does the halachah that piku’ach nefesh sets aside Torah prohibi-
tions only apply when non Jews are compelling a Jew to commit a
sin – for example, when the Nazis yimach shemam [may their name
be wiped out], castrated Jews and anyone who objected was killed.
In such a situation, piku’ach nefesh sets aside the prohibition of cas-
tration. Another example is a situation of life-threatening illness, in
which case it is straightforward that excising the organs is permitted
in order to effect a cure.

This is not the case in our question, for there are no non-Jews
compelling the young men to be castrated and neither are they sick,
such that their state of health requires that it be done. Rather, they
themselves for no substantial reason have decided that if their request
is not fulfilled they will knowingly commit suicide. Where have we
seen that such a situation is considered piku’ach nefesh that sets aside
Torah prohibitions?

A similar case once arose when non-kosher meat was found on sale
in a butcher store that was thought to be kosher. When the rabbanim

420 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein