Holding a woman’s hand during childbirth
Hello, respected Rabbi, I saw that nowadays it is forbidden to hold a woman in labor’s hand (some say that in this case the midwife can actually do so with the help of a “glove”)
I wanted to ask the rabbi a few questions on the subject: We see that for a woman giving birth, they desecrate the Sabbath even in order to calm her mind (to turn on the light even though she is blind), whereas for a woman giving birth, the prohibition to hold her hand is rabbinic according to the Ramban, and even if we say that we will follow the Rambam who believes that this is from the Torah, the Shach says that even according to the Rambam, contact that is not a touch of lust is rabbinic, and we truly see that they permitted desecrating the Sabbath even for the woman’s emotional need and to bring a doula [(supporting the birth) according to the ruling of Rabbi Avraham Yosef], so why is it that in the law of holding a broken hand, for us that it is at least to calm her mind, if not more, they do not permit this even though it is only rabbinic?
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