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desert, even though no healing northerly wind blew. (Yevamos 72a)
The Panim Yafos writes, “Non-Jews who wanted to convert were al-
lowed to expose themselves to possible danger in order to convert and
fulfill all the mitzvos.”

On the other hand this seems problematic in view of the gemara in
Nedarim (31b) which says that Moshe Rabbenu said [when confront-
ed with both Hashem’s instruction to return to Egypt, as well as a
new born son who had not yet had bris milah],“If I perform the milah
and then set out it will endanger the baby and it says,‘And he shall live
by them [i.e. the mitzvos].’” The Shitah Mekubetzes asks,“The Torah
had not yet been given, so how was it allowed to violate the mitzvah
of milah because of ‘he shall live by them,’ when this mitzvah had not
yet been given? The Shitah Mikubetzes answers, “We apparently say
thus, that one thing [mitzvah] should be violated in order to fulfill
many mitzvos.” In other words, we must set one thing aside – the
mitzvah of milah – in order to [ensure that he will] fulfill all the other
mitzvos he has been commanded. This is logic. It is clear from the
gemara and from the Shitah Mekubetzes that we are to set one thing
aside, owing to the danger, so as not to lose many things [i.e. other
mitzvos]. How then is a non-Jew allowed to endanger himself under-
going milah when he stands to lose all his [other] mitzvos, and how
did the Haflaah [the author of Panim Yafos] permit a ger to endanger
himself in order to have milah?

The response that my father-in-law Rav Y.S. Elyashiv zt”l, gave to
this question (in Kovetz Teshuvos, 106) is that a non Jew is allowed
to undertake a slight risk. Only a Jew, who is commanded, “He shall
live by them,” is forbidden to take even a small risk,4 but a non-Jew
may take such a risk. He must only avoid a real danger but is not
prevented from taking an unlikely risk. To circumcise a child and
then depart on a journey would have been very dangerous and was
therefore forbidden but performing circumcision without a northerly
wind only poses a slight danger and is permitted. [By the same token]

4. For the definition and percentages of what constitutes danger, see earlier, siman
113.

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