“Can I Call 9-11?”
A Moral Dilemma for the Shabbos Table
By Rabbi Yitzi Weiner
This week’s Torah portion introduces the mitzva of Shabbos. According to the Sfas Emes, Shabbos is related to the word shavas, which means return. It is a special time to “return” the world to its original state of Oneness with Hashem and with each other. (click here for some inspirational stories I collected about the mitzva of Shabbos, that you may like to share at your table.)
Although Shabbos is very important, one is allowed to violate the laws of Shabbos if someone’s life is at risk.
The following two moral dilemmas explore the limits of when it is permitted to violate Shabbos for an urgent situation.
Yosef was an elderly man with Alzheimer’s disease. He lived in Israel in a nursing home. One Shabbos, Yosef left his nursing home without anyone noticing. He wandered to the home of a cousin, Chaim who lived a few miles away. Yosef had a very pleasant Shabbos afternoon drinking tea and sharing stories with his cousin.
When the nursing home officials realized that Yosef had wandered off, they panicked. They called the police and frantically looked all over the neighborhood for him. The police spent the entire afternoon looking for Yosef. Because it was a potentially life threatening situation, the nursing home officials, drove in a car searching for all over the neighborhood for him.
After Shabbos was over, Chaim calmly called the nursing home to tell them that Yosef was with him. The nursing home manager came onto the phone in state of panic.
“Do you mean that Yosef was by you the whole time?” the manager asked incredulously
Yes, Chaim answered.
“Why didn’t you call the police immediately? We were looking frantically for him for hours. You caused so many people so much anxiety. The police were searching for hours!”.
“Well, I didn’t call the police because Yosef was safe and was with me. There was no danger to anyone’s life.”
“Yes there was!“ retorted the manager. “You put the community risk. Because the police were so preoccupied with the search it is possible that they had to be diverted from other things that could be life threatening. Your thoughtlessness caused unnecessary desecration of Shabbos on our part and put the public at risk”
Chaim heard the manager’s argument but wasn’t convinced.
What do you think?
Should Chaim have called the police when Yosef arrived? On one hand there was no direct threat to life. But on the other hand, having the police preoccupied unnecessarily may have put the public at risk.
See Chashukei Chemed Yoma page 554)
Since we are on the topic of calling the police, I would like to share a story that happened to me yesterday (on Simchas Torah)
I was eating the Simchas Torah meal with my family when we looked out the widow and saw three teenagers from a nearby high-school breaking into the car of our neighbor. They opened the car door, broke the ignition, and used a screwdriver to try to hot wire the car.
We knew that we had only a few moments to act. Our family quickly discussed if we were allowed to call 9-11. On one hand it seemed that there was no direct threat to life. But on the other hand having criminals on the loose in our neighborhood is certainly unsafe.
Were we allowed to call 9-11?
I will tell you the conclusion of the story next week. Please pardon the cliffhanger. 🙂
Answer to last week’s moral dilemma:
(click here to review the question)
This story is discussed in Veharev Na Volume Three Hebrew Edition page 486
Rabb Zilberstein answered as follows.
They joined as partners in order to fulfill the mitzvos together. They never joined with the intention that three of them would have to sleep outside the succah. Therefore having Yair joining them was under a mistaken impression, similar to a mekach taus, a mistaken transaction. Therefore the three, who are the majority are allowed to ask Yair to leave for the nights, and pay him for his share in missing out of being able to use the succah.
Have a wonderful shabbos!
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