Q&A: A Missile of Prohibited Benefit
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
A Missile of Prohibited Benefit
Question
The Palestinians fire a missile that shoots bits of meat cooked in milk into the mouths of the crowd, and the person into whose mouth it is inserted enjoys it very much. Is there an obligation to enter a shelter if there is no other way to protect oneself from this benefit?
Answer
Why not? See Chagigah 24b: “his fellow thrust it in with a spindle,” and in Ketubot 30b: “that his fellow thrust it into his mouth,” and at the beginning of Tosafot s.v. “Ve-i” there.
To be sure, one could discuss this from the angle of putting oneself into a situation of coercion, but it is possible that prohibitions of eating are different, since one who is merely occupied with forbidden fats and forbidden sexual relations is liable because he derives pleasure.