Rav Zev Leff
Rav Zev Leff was asked to speak to an elderly man who had been told by his doctor that he was suffering from a condition that could be life threatening if he fasted. Nevertheless, the man was determined to fast anyway. Rav Leff met with this man and explained to him that he must eat on Yom Kippur.
The elderly gentleman looked at Rabbi Leff and said, “Rabbi, you are a young man and I am about three times your age. Since my Bar Mitzvah I have not eaten on Yom Kippur, and I do not intend to start now.”
Rav Leff replied that he could not force him to eat on Yom Kippur, but as soon as the meeting was over, he would instruct his Gabai to never give him another Aliyah or any honor in his Shul ever again.
The man was shocked. He asked, “Why do I deserve such treatment for being strict with respect to Yom Kippur?”
Rabbi Leff told him, “We are prohibited from honoring those who worship idols.”
The man was now upset. He had never been accused before of doing Avodah Zarah! He demanded to know, “What idol am I guilty of worshipping?!”
Rabbi Leff explained, “Hashem has decreed that you must eat on Yom Kippur. If your doctor has given you instructions, then this is the decree from Hashem. If some other god has commanded you to fast, it is irrelevant to me if you call it Zeus, Kemosh, or Yom Kippur, all idols are the same.”
The man softened and understood what Rav Leff was telling him. Rabbi Leff added, “We learn from Hillel that just as it is a Zechus to feed a guest, it is also an act of Chesed to give sustenance to one’s own Neshamah, because the Neshamah is the guest in one’s body. The way for you to take care of your Neshamah is to listen to your doctor, and not do some foreign service that will put your life at risk. That has no place in Yiddishkeit!”
Reprinted from the Yom Kippur 5785 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’ Tefilah.
