[Avodah] Fasting on YK

[chana at kolsassoon.org.uk]

RYG writes:

>An interesting distinction, but I stand by what I wrote; I don't see
>why we should differentiate between one already in danger and one who
>will soon be in danger.  In both cases there is a threat to life that
>must be countered either by hilul shabbos, or by my sacrifice.  I 
don't
>really see why the latter falls under the rubric of lo sa'a'mod any
>more than does the former.

It is not just that the person is already in danger versus one who 
will soon be in danger, but that once the person is already in danger, 
there is a specific halacha vis a vis shabbas (or yom kippur) which 
applies - namely that shabbas is doche.  That means that, cooking on 
shabbas for the person who is already sufficiently sick is completely, 
al pi halacha, mutar.  Going to get the food from the neighbour 
therefore is a chumra, and we do not (at least according to RSZA) 
impose a chumra in the case where it will cause tzar.

The fact that this is true can  be seen from the very example 
brought.  If a person is sufficiently sick so as to be a choleh sheyesh 
bo sakana, it is highly unlikely that the cooking being done on shabbas 
is being done by them.  It is almost certainly the case that the person 
doing the cooking is somebody else - perhaps a spouse or family member, 
perhaps a neighbour.  Perhaps even the neighbour whose food one might 
otherwise have thought ought to be confiscated in order to feed the 
sick person, or perhaps another neighbour.

So why does RSZA's concept of tzar not extend to them?  Why do we not 
say that - well the spouse or family member or neighbour might well get 
tzar from cooking on shabbas, which at least sort of feels like chillul 
shabbas and assur, even if they know that it is really mutar, and why 
do we not weigh their tzar against the tzar of the other neighbour with 
the food, and conclude that tzar plus chillul shabbas should outweight 
tzar without chillul shabbas?  And even further, why do we allow the 
person in question to cook at all?  Why is it not OK for the person to 
say to the choleh sheyesh bo sakana, you go and cook, but I am not 
putting my olah haba at stake for you? 

My understanding of the answer to these questions is because - if 
there is a choleh sheyesh bo tzakana there - then it is perfectly mutar 
for the person to cook for them.  The obligations of shabbas are pushed 
aside vis a  vis the cook, whoever they may be.  For that person then 
to refuse to cook is, again, a violation of lo sa'amod.  And to have 
tzar about this is not real tzar, because the halacha dictates that one 
ought to cook.  To refuse to cook in such circumstances is the classic 
case of the chassid shoteh - I am being so frum and not looking or 
touching the woman and hence letting her drown.  But to not have food 
for one's shabbas meal is a real form of tzar.  And since there is 
nothing wrong with cooking in the particular circumstance, and cooking 
will solve the lo sa'amod problem, we are not require to put the 
neighbour with the food into a state of real tzar.

But in the case of the woman on Yom Kippur, she is not yet in a state 
of choleh sheyesh bo sakana - so none of the specific halachos of  
being doche Yom Kippur apply.  And there is no necessity for her to 
ever get to the state, if the husband stays home, or pays for help or 
whatever.  So, it seems to me, he would be in violation of lo sa'amod 
if he did not seek to prevent it.

>Yitzhak

Regards

Chana



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