Q&A: Life-Saving Need on Yom Kippur
Life-Saving Need on Yom Kippur
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I heard a recorded lecture by Rabbi Zilberstein, may he live long, in which he told of an elderly doctor who was called in the middle of Yom Kippur to give a calming injection to someone who had suffered a herniated disc and was in severe pain. The doctor hesitated whether to go, because it was on the other side of the town where he lived, and walking there and back in the heavy heat, together with his advanced age of over 70, would certainly cause him to break the fast, to eat or at least to drink. And this case, simply speaking, was not a matter of life-saving danger, but only severe pain that was not life-threatening.
Rabbi Zilberstein said that this question was brought to Rabbi Elyashiv of blessed memory, and Rabbi Elyashiv ruled that the doctor indeed had to go and give the injection to the patient, on the basis of “do not stand idly by your neighbor’s blood,” and also on the basis of “and you shall restore it to him,” since restoring a person’s body is greater than restoring his money. And since this is what he is commanded to do right now, he does not need to take into account the fact that afterward he will need to break the fast, because that is a life-saving issue in its own right. He emphasized that a person is commanded to do what stands before him right now!
They asked him there in the lecture about the well-known question of a person who cannot fast both the Fast of Gedaliah and Yom Kippur, where the halakhic ruling is that he should forgo Gedaliah so that he can fast on Yom Kippur. Seemingly, why should we not say here as well that he should do what he is commanded to do right now, and right now the Fast of Gedaliah stands before him, and the fact that afterward he will have to forgo Yom Kippur is already a separate calculation.
I did not really understand his answer there, and I would be happy to hear the Rabbi’s answer regarding the distinction between the cases, or regarding the basic reasoning in the first case, if the Rabbi agrees with this ruling.
Thank you, and may you be sealed for a good year!
Answer
I definitely agree with that ruling.
I do not know his answer, so I cannot try to explain it. In my opinion it is indeed similar, although regarding the Fast of Gedaliah there is no fully binding obligation, so it is not exactly like the case of the doctor.
This is essentially the idea of “one engaged in a commandment is exempt from another commandment.”
Discussion on Answer
Hi Moshe, sorry I didn’t write it. The doctor was called by a person from the town who came and summoned him, but how is that relevant to the question?
If on Yom Kippur there are air-raid sirens, is that considered life-saving danger, and is it permitted to stop, or must one continue?
I didn’t understand. Do you mean a doctor driving in a car on the way to a patient? That is not what was being discussed here, and I expect you to spell out your question. If that is what you mean, then obviously he must continue. A definite danger certainly overrides a remote doubt like an air-raid siren.
Hi Yosef, how was the doctor called? By beeper, text message, messenger? How?