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item, '<a href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/doctors-to-gehennom">Why Do the
Best of Doctors Go to Gehennom?</a>'<br />
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<p>On <a href="https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/84807">Mi
Yodeyah</a>, <a
href="https://judaism.stackexchange.com/users/9682/donielf">DonielF</a> quotes
the last <em>mishnah</em> in Qiddushin. The mishnah first lists a set of
professions that one shouldn’t teach one’s son, because it’s
hard to make money in them while avoiding theft. After a couple of debates
about specific jobs belonging on the list, the mishnah says:</p>
<blockquote dir="rtl">טוב שברופאים לגיהנם, והכשר
שבטבחים שותפו של עמלק</blockquote>
<blockquote>The best of doctors is to Gehenna, and the fittest of butchers is
a partner of Amalek.</blockquote>
<p>The quote is perplexing, particularly the first part. Doctors are among the
good guys — why is the <em>mishnah</em> saying that (even?) the best are
headed for <em>gehennom</em>?</p>
<p>Doniel F. quotes the Maharasha’s treatment of this question:</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="rtl">יש לפרש טוב שברופאים דהיינו שמחזיק
עצמו לטוב ולמומחה שברופאים שאין כמוהו
וסומך ביותר על המחאתו מתוך גאוותו ולפעמים
הוא טועה בטבע זה החולה וממית את החולה
ברפואותיו בדבר שמזיק לחולה זה אבל יש לו
לישא וליתן עם שאר הרופאים כיון שהוא סכנת
נפשות:</p>
<p>There is to explain that “the best of doctors” refers to those who hold
themselves in such high regard and expertise of the doctors that there are
none like him, and he relies too much on his own experience because of his
arrogance. Sometimes he will make a mistake in the natural way of things and
will kill a sick person by trying to heal him with something bad for him.
Rather, he should consult with other doctors regarding things that could lead
to death.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Then he asks:</p>
<p>This seems a little strange to me: At best, the doctor can only be faulted
for accidentally killing a person. It’s not like he intended to kill the
patient. Why should that outweigh all the (presumably) many more lives that
he’s saved?<br><br></p>
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<p>Here was my answer:</p>
<p>I am reminded of an insight I heard from R’ Aharon Lichtenstein
zt”l.</p>
<p>Shaul was assigned the job of killing all of the tribe of Amaleiq. He led a
war that almost did it; but he left one person — Agag, their king
— alive. Shemuel told him that as punishment, Shaul would lose the
throne; he would be a one-king “dynasty”.</p>
<p>Rav Lichtenstein taught that it was not <strong>saving </strong>Agag that
was the great sin that carried such a punishment. Rather, by not killing Agag,
Shaul demonstrated that killing every other Amaleiqi wasn’t to fulfill
the mitzvah. If he wasn’t following G-d’s command to kill
EVERYONE, then killing the rest of Amaleiq was simply genocide.</p>
<p>I read this Maharsha similarly.</p>
<p>The Maharsha mentions two things: arrogance, and the inevitable mistake. If
a doctor acted purely to help others, then he wouldn’t be considered
guilty for any mistakes. (But if they were capable of motives that pure, the
doctor wouldn’t be human!) To the extent that a doctor acts for the sake
of their own ego, the actions in which they erred also had that element of for
their own ego. And they are guilty to whatever extent they harmed someone else
out of a pursuit of self aggrandizement. Even if it’s also along with
other, purer, motives, that element of petty motive leading to harm to someone
else needs purging in <em>gehennom</em>.</p>
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