Thursday, January 6, 2011

Under the Weather


The next category that I want to discuss is choleh sh’ayn bo sakanah, a sick person with a non-life-threatening illness.  There are two types of people that are considered choleh sh’ayn bo sakanah.  The first is a person who has an illness that affects the entire body.  An example of this would be someone with a moderate/severe flu or the chickenpox.  The second is someone who has a localized ailment, but it is so strong that he cannot function and must lie in bed.  This would include someone with a very painful headache (even if it is not a migraine) or an asthma attack that makes someone weak due to lack of oxygen (even if it non-life-threatening).

The first leniency for such a person is in the area of amira l’akum, telling a non-Jew.  For such a sick person, all authorities agree that one may ask a non-Jew to violate any prohibition, even a Biblical one, to provide care for the sick person.  Next week, I will discuss another major leniency.

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