Fighting the Egyptians Rabbi Gideon Weitzman, Machon Puah

WEITZMAN

Fighting the Egyptians

For the past few weeks we have been reviewing the lecture delivered to doctors by Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein regarding the liability of a doctor when causing damage or a fatal casualty.

In his extremely entertaining shiurim and lectures, Rabbi Zilberstein is known for peppering the halachic discussion with stories and ethical messages mostly drawn from verses from the Tanach or from Midrashim. When discussing this subject of liability and suing the doctor, he brought a question raised by Rabbi Moshe Sofer on this week’s Parsha.

The Torah writes “the Children of Israel ascended from Egypt armed” (Shemot 13:18, and see Rashi ad loc.). If they were armed, why did they not fight the Egyptians who pursued them and caught up with the Children of Israel on the banks of the sea. Why did God have to split the sea and not simply encourage them to fight for themselves?

The Chatam Sofer explained that it was inappropriate for the Jews to fight the Egyptians since they had lived in Egypt for the past two centuries. The Torah itself instructs us “You shall not abhor an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in his land” (Devarim 23:8).

This is a strange explanation since the Jewish people were subjugated by the Egyptians and suffered greatly in Egypt. Still, God instructed us to be grateful to the Egyptian people who took us in and allowed us to live in their midst for so many years.

Based on this principle, we could claim

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that it is inappropriate to sue the doctor and seek damages. The doctor treated us with dedication and commitment, and made a mistake that caused damage. In the same way that we respect the Egyptians’ hospitality, despite their eventual cruelty, we should thank the doctor for his devotion and ignore the eventual unwanted and unfortunate outcome.

However, there is a distinction between the two cases; the Egyptians did house the Jewish people and so we owe them appreciation. Even though they later subjugated us, the kindness is not erased and needs to be noted. The doctor may have greeted us with a smile; however he did not heal us but caused damage. His good intentions and nice manner are appreciated but he did not fulfil his function as a doctor. A message of this week’s Parsha is that we must appreciate good deeds, but we this cannot be read as an excuse for medical malpractice.

Still if the patient does have appreciation for the doctor’s good intentions he is not obligated to publicize the doctor’s mistake and decides not to sue him.

More on this next week.

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