By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com
This article is in no way meant to, chalilah, take away from the remarkable heroism of United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Benny Meshulam or to question his actions. Rather, it is meant to teach Torah. We will begin with the facts of what happened and then we will discuss the underlying halachos.
Benny Meshulam was on his way to work from his home in Beer Yaakov . It seems he was on the 4319 and turned to the 44. He noticed the traffic in the opposite lane came to an abrupt standstill. He then saw two young IDF soldiers lying on the sidewalk. It took a few seconds, but he realized that this was a terrorist attack – a stabbing, and the perpetrator was still on the loose.
Rachmana litzlan.
Benny and two other citizens, barehandedly, subdued the terrorist. The attempted murderert was a Palestinian resident of Hebron in his 20s.
Arutz Sheva reported, “We punched and kicked him, and used anything else we could in order to knock him down,” he remarked. “The terrorist looked determined. I could see the evil in his eyes. Once he was no longer a threat, I ran towards one of the men, who had sustained serious injuries from being stabbed in his upper torso. I provided initial treatment, bandaging the man’s wounds and applying pressure on them in order to stop the bleeding. I contacted dispatch and made sure that backup was on the way. After a few minutes, other volunteers began to arrive and took over treating the young man. I then went to treat the second person who had been injured in the incident. His wounds were less severe and he was in light condition.”
Both IDF soldiers were taken to Shamir Medical Center for further treatment.
And now the halachic question. Should the EMT(if he has the capability) try first to subdue the terrorist or treat the victims?
Rav Moshe Bransdorfer shlita addresses this very question in his Heichal Horaah Vol. IV #190.
Arguing with a Rav from Bnei Brak, Rav Bransdorfer writes that the two victims are considered safaik pikuach nefesh – perhaps it is a life-threatening injury, but perhaps not. The terrorist already left them and went on to attack others.
However, the gathered crowd, argues Rav Bransdorfer, are to be considered certain pikuach nefesh as he extrapolates from the words of the Shulchan Aruch CM 425:1 and the Rambam Hilchos Rotzayach 1:6.
May Hashem save us from such questions and multiply the three tzaddikim who subdued the terrorist. What a remarkable z’chus to enter into Pesach with!
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5 Responses
In western medecine, they treat the symptoms and don’t necessarily try to find the roots of the disease, and in eastern medecine, we see the opposite, they get to the cause, the symptoms will stop then, which seems much smarter.
I will ad to this that in general, providing first for the most urgent medical care or what a human being needs should’t be a question, we all need a home, food and safety, anything related to primary needs cannot be questionned, become a business nor subject to decision makers. Sadly we got to a point people are questionning what a man need and worse who ” deserve ” to have access to those.
it depends entirely on the situation.
if there are lots of other jews nearby that could be fatally harmed and the wounded soldiers don’t seem to be bleeding so badly then you should go after the terrorist first because he can easily kill others.
if there is no one around and the terrorist just ran into some bushes, fields, or went to hide in an abandoned building then you should treat the wounded first and call for police backup to subdue the terrorist.
I agree with that
Let’s modify the question.
Suppose someone is critically injured by a terrorist. He now has the ability to do one of the following: Treat his own wounds which if left untreated are a sofek pikuach nefesh or go after the terrorist which may go and kill others. He is able to do either of these, but not both.
What should he do?
Chayecha kodmin, or place yourself in sakano save nefoshos?
Indeed, every soldier places himself in sofek pikuach nefesh to save others (rather than flee the draft because of chayecha kodmin!