Research teams around the globe are frantically trying to discover a vaccine and cure for the novel coronavirus, which kills roughly two percent of people who contract it.
Generally, a person can break the laws of Shabbat to save a life, but can one do so to conduct research that may lead to a vaccine that may save someone’s life in the future? The Jewish Press recently posed this question to Rav Menachem Perl, head of the Zomet Institute in Israel.
The Jewish Press: Can one do research on developing a vaccine for coronavirus on Shabbos?
Rabbi Perl: Pikuach nefesh overrides the Shabbat, but this generally refers to an immediate danger. If the danger is far away, the laws of Shabbat are suspended, but an effort is made to reduce, as much as possible, violating the more stringent prohibitions without jeopardizing the quality of the treatment.
Halacha distinguishes between cases where a sick person is present and where no sick person is present. This distinction is discussed in relation to the question of kohanim studying medicine if they will have to dissect corpses.
Finally, there’s a difference between danger to an individual and danger to the public. A baraita states: “A burning ember of metal is extinguished in the public thoroughfare so that many people aren’t harmed” (Shabbat 42a). A guard could theoretically be stationed by the hot metal to warn people passing by, but the Sages granted permission to extinguish it.
How can all this be applied to responding to coronavirus?
Torah laws cannot be violated unless the endangered person is within our reach. But today, when a surgeon can be thousands of kilometers away operating via a robot, it is almost as if the sick person is present in front of him.
So doing research to discover a vaccine for coronavirus is permitted?
A researcher should ask Israel’s Chief Rabbinate for a psak that considers the exact nature of his or her work. Shabbat is a Divine gift, and we must observe it in a scrupulous fashion. But we also have a clear obligation to continue medical research on coronavirus on Shabbat. This disease is spreading throughout the world and is a great danger to everyone.
May the Almighty help us overcome the peril.