Lesson # 328 (Assaults, part 6) • Specific cases of Assault and Removing Dangerous Conditions In the last lesson we discussed some specific cases of assault and ended by saying that a few more cases would be discussed in this lesson. Let’s take the case where Reuven injures a married woman. The halacha makes it inadvisable to clash with a married woman. If Reuven injures a married woman - not his wife, he must make the payments for compensation just as he would to any other person whom he injures. However, if a married woman, not Reuven’s wife, injures Reuven, she does not have to make payment to him at that time, since all that she possesses belongs to her husband, while they are married. Upon her husband’s death, or should he divorce her, when she repossesses her assets, she must make the payments for the injuries to Reuven. Beth Din should assess the compensation due at the time that the injuries occur. The amount is then deemed an unpaid debt of a debtor who does not have the means to pay the debt, but must pay it when assets are acquired. Reuven and his wife injure
each other If Reuven injures his wife during marital relations he is liable for the injury done to her. If Reuven and his wife injure each other, the payments to be made to one another are paid separately. Just as a Jew must protect his spouse, he is under an obligation to save a fellow Jew. One of the verses that forms the basis for the law is the famous verse “...You shall love your neighbor as yourself...” (Vayikra 19:18). If a Jew is in a position to save a fellow Jew and fails to do so he transgresses the Torah commandment“ not to stand aside while your fellow’s blood is shed”. If Reuven sees Shimon drowning in the sea and Reuven is a good swimmer and does not save Shimon, Reuven has transgressed the same negative commandment not to stand idly by when his brother’s blood is being shed. The same holds true if bandits threaten Shimon’s life or if Shimon is threatened by wild animals and Reuven can save him but fails to do so. Likewise, if Reuven hears people plotting to do evil against Shimon, planning to inform the government against Shimon, or laying a trap against him, and in all of these and similar instances, Reuven fails to help Shimon, Reuven has transgressed the commandment. The same holds true if Reuven sees Sarah about to be raped or Shimon about to be killed and he fails to save them, Reuven has transgressed the commandment. Helping a fellow Jew includes lending him money when he is in dire need. Failing to lend him money may be similar to shedding his blood. A visitor must be escorted a safe distance from the host’s house so that he will find his way home safely. Some of the later commentators hold that with the advent of modern means of transportation this law may entail taking someone to his car, train or bus station. There is no flogging for transgressing this commandment since it does not involve an action and flogging is reserved for those transgressions that entail action on their part. Nevertheless, this is a most serious offense. If one destroys the life of any Jew he is regarded as if he has destroyed the whole world and if one preserves the life of a single Jew is it as if he had preserved the entire world. One can only speculate what the reality would have been like if Jews cried out more loudly to save Jews in the Holocaust. There are certain other actions that a person should take to help preserve the life of others, such as removing dangerous conditions. This is based on the Torah command to have a parapet on the roof of one’s dwelling. The codes list many other things that are hazardous and dangerous if left on someone’s property. Maimonides in Laws of Murder and Preservation of Life list many. For example: (1) Shimon may not put his mouth to a flowing pipe and drink from it; (2) Shimon may not drink at night from rivers or lakes because he may be swallowing insects, etc; (3) the following liquids are not to be drunk if left uncovered: water, wine, honey and fish brine; (4) garlic that has been crushed and left uncovered should not be eaten; (5) melon that has been cut and left uncovered should not be eaten; (6) Shimon should not drink from an uncovered bottle of water left in certain places; (7) medicine should be bought in stores in which the seller is known to be reliable;(8) one should not place coins in one’s mouth; (9) water in which certain fruits that he enumerates have been cooked should not be drunk; (10) the barber from whom Shimon takes a haircut should be known to him; (11) dangerous weapons may not be sold to a heathen; (12) certain domestic animals or birds that have been bitten by a snake and certain fruits and vegetables from which bits have been pecked away by animals or birds should not be eaten. One may not say that he wishes to be left alone and do these things that endanger him. If he insists upon putting himself in danger he may be flogged. Every reader can think of things that a person should not do so as not to put himself in danger. These can include having a swimming pool without a fence around it, those things that are known in the law as attractive nuisances, and not having adequate circuit breakers in one’s home. The list is never ending. The determining guideline is that if there is a possibility of something causing harm it should be safeguarded. Rabbi Yosef Karo, in the last chapter of Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat, writes “Whoever is careful regarding these laws will receive good blessings. Similarly I would like to quote
from the end of volume X of my Restatement of Rabbinic Civil Law with the
following blessing: The subject matter of this lesson is more fully discussed in volume X chapter 427 of A Restatement of Rabbinic Civil Law by E. Quint. Copies of all volumes can be purchased via email: orders@gefenpublishing.com and via website: www.israelbooks.com and at local Judaica bookstores. Questions to quint@inter.net.il. [The Parshat
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