Halakhah for Keritot 27:57
Torat HaAdam
The chapter in Keritut starting "They said to him" has:
We allow a pregnant woman to eat repeated small portions that are each below the minimum forbidden size, because she is in danger. This ruling is queried; if she is in danger, let her eat more. Rav Papa said the correct reading is: We allow a pregnant women to eat repeated small portions, and even more if she is danger. (BT Keritut 13a)
This means that even if she needs a full [forbidden] quantity, we feed her in repeated small portions so that it does not add up to the full amount within a short time16 halakhically defined as the time span within which the total forbidden quantity is deemed to accumulate. Thus rules the author of Halakhot (Sefer Halakhot Gedolot – at the end of the Yom Kippur Laws). It seems to me that this applies to a sick patient as well, sparing him from eating quantities that would normally be punishable by karet or flagellation. You may wonder then why the Talmud says you feed the patient with the minimum infringement of the law, choosing tithes where there is a choice between un-tithed food and tithe, both of them being simply forbidden17with equal punishments. In cases where eating the full quantity of different foods would lead to punishments of different severities, where the patient eats less than the punishable quantity eating the one food is considered more serious than eating the other. Another approach is to say that the Talmud refers to the case of the sick patient who is estimated to need a full quantity within the specified [normally punishable] time.18Therefore the ruling is to give the less forbidden food rather to give the food in small quantities.
We allow a pregnant woman to eat repeated small portions that are each below the minimum forbidden size, because she is in danger. This ruling is queried; if she is in danger, let her eat more. Rav Papa said the correct reading is: We allow a pregnant women to eat repeated small portions, and even more if she is danger. (BT Keritut 13a)
This means that even if she needs a full [forbidden] quantity, we feed her in repeated small portions so that it does not add up to the full amount within a short time16 halakhically defined as the time span within which the total forbidden quantity is deemed to accumulate. Thus rules the author of Halakhot (Sefer Halakhot Gedolot – at the end of the Yom Kippur Laws). It seems to me that this applies to a sick patient as well, sparing him from eating quantities that would normally be punishable by karet or flagellation. You may wonder then why the Talmud says you feed the patient with the minimum infringement of the law, choosing tithes where there is a choice between un-tithed food and tithe, both of them being simply forbidden17with equal punishments. In cases where eating the full quantity of different foods would lead to punishments of different severities, where the patient eats less than the punishable quantity eating the one food is considered more serious than eating the other. Another approach is to say that the Talmud refers to the case of the sick patient who is estimated to need a full quantity within the specified [normally punishable] time.18Therefore the ruling is to give the less forbidden food rather to give the food in small quantities.
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