Not trying to do so might even be seen as a violation of the Torah’s clear dictate of not standing idly by on your brother’s blood. The psychologist in this case feared this outcome. He felt he should not stand idly by and let his gay client’s blood be spilled. He asked a Shaila and was told that this is exactly what he should do – stand by and allow a threatened suicide to happen.
This was a Pikuach Nefesh issue. There is no other way to see it, in my view. I agree with Rabbi Eidensohn.
I would also ask that Posek why he thought reconciling a relationship between two gay men was in fact a Mesayei’ah L’Dvar Aviera. I have been told by people in the gay community that not every male homosexual relationship ends up in Mishkav Zechor. So putting these two people back together was no guarantee that they would be sinning at that level – or at any level. But even if they would sin at that level, reconciling a relationship is not a direct facilitation of that sin. It is only a facilitation of conditions that may allow it to happen.
The bottom line for me here is that a life could have been saved. And yet a Posek was stringent in matters of sexual impropriety at the expense of Pikuach Nefesh. I do not think it was a wise decision. In my view he should have been stringent in Pikuach Nefesh.
Visit Emes Ve-Emunah . / Harry Maryles
