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the mitzvah to allow the worker to eat], despite the fact
that any warning he received was indefinite, because the
worker may have forgone his right to eat. Now, the correct
course would apparently have been for the worker to for-
go his right so that the owner doesn’t transgress “Do not
muzzle…” [yet the gemara doesn’t assume that this is what
happened]. From here we learn that the worker is under
no obligation to forgo his entitlement in order to help his
employer avoid sinning.

3. In maseches Kesuvos (3b) the gemara states that despite
Chazal’s enactment that previously unmarried young
women should marry on Wednesdays, when it was decreed
that [prior to her wedding] every virgin must have rela-
tions with the local ruler, Chazal sought to abolish their
enactment [because it led to danger, for the ruler knew
when the girls were to be married and the girls were ready
to sacrifice their lives rather than be defiled]. The gemara
asks:“Why not point out [to the brides] that onnes [sinning
under compulsion] is permitted [and they need not give up
their lives]?” Even though doing this would lead the ruler
to transgress forbidden relations, and it would therefore
obviously seem preferable to abolish Chazal’s enactment
in order to avoid the ruler’s involvement in forbidden re-
lations, we see nonetheless [that this was not done] and
that there is therefore no obligation to lose a mitzvah and
[abolish] an enactment of Chazal’s in order to avoid an-
other person transgressing. [The reasoning underlying the
Maharil Diskin’s conclusion may be similar to that written
in the Mishpatei Shmuel (134), namely that by actively
extending some forbidden item to a colleague, it appears
as though a person is showing disdain for the mitzvah [by
enabling another person to transgress it]. However, this
only holds true if he is doing so of his own volition but
if some other factor is compelling him to do so [e.g. the
threat of financial loss], there is no longer any appearance

452 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein