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You subject your baby to risks the moment you take him outside where there are germs. Even immunizations have riskss. The question is how much risk and whether the benefit outweighs it. One case — which is what we are discussing — is tragic but statistically irrelevant. When my first child was born, we were told that letting her sleep on her stomach is dangerous and we were extremely vigilant about it. Most parents are not. Do they violate the pikuach nefesh mandate?
We cant tell people how to poskin, but we dont have to come to their defense when we think they are wrong.
As for shirayim, my understanding is that some chasiddic courts have modified their practice to prevent public health dangers. In case where there is a serious flu going around that could kill older people, it should be assur.
Ad far as what os considered pikuach nefesh, this requires some more sophisticated cost benefit analysis. We know that this is MbP is a minhag that will cause a certain number of preventable deaths. They question is is MbF important enough to allow for these deaths?
Of course people will disagree on the importance of this practice, but are there any other cases thata we allow preventable death to occur in order to do mitzvah?
Immunization? Really? Immunization confers a real advantage. Ditto riding in cars, yadda yadda. Metzitza b’feh confers none whatsoever. None. That you can bring them both up is telling.
(Metzitza confers no benefit either, but at least it doesn’t hurt. The same goes for mitzvot in general.)
I wonder where this absolutism is when it comes to the discussion under Amalek. :-)
Totally with Gil here.
Another example: People have died because their shabbos candles burned down the house. Incandescent lightbulbs don’t burn down houses nearly as much and work for shabbos candles according to some opinions. Does that mean that everyone has an obligation to be “machmir” on pikuach nefesh by using electric bulbs instead of candles?
“Metzitza b’feh confers none whatsoever.”
I think this is the heart of the issue. We modern types think metzitzah is all about some supposed medical issue and that it is not actually medically beneficial. But metzitzah has other connotations and import to those who practice it, was incorporated into rituals in ways that make it seem like it was not just medical, etc. Those who practice it think it has “benefits” like any other esoteric ritual. which is to say, not benefits discernible to us necessarily, but not ones we should so quickly dismiss.
Well, they’re wrong. Yes, I believe in objective truth.
“Well, they’re wrong.” Great argument.