Kennes Rabbanim Woodmere: Halachic Guidelines in End-of-Life Care | Rav Asher Weiss Shlit"a (5786)

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Asher Weiss’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

So our coming session reading out of the plan between holding on and letting go guidelines and end of life care. I do not remember when but I am almost confident that in the past we had a discussion about end of life issues. uh some topics are so relevant and so important that it is always beneficial important that it is always beneficial to come back again and again to these fundamental questions but I will try to bring up some uh some unique questions I've been dealing with in the past year because if we have this kennis every year we need to uh come up with new ideas and questions So is ala stagnant or is ala flexible? So is ala stagnant or is ala flexible? Very good question. So for many years we thought it depends are you asking an orthodox rabbi who was or a conservative rabbi. But the answer is more nuanced than that. Aloh is extremely rigid on one hand and flexible on the other. It is rigid in the fundamentals. To us, is the word of Akadeshu and we don't dictate to aesh what his and we don't dictate to aesh what his title would be. We follow strictly his rules, his guidelines and his ruling. But on the other hand, as I said in my opening comments today, yes, it is the duty of a POK to find ways to legitimately be done. I think that one of the amazing of our generation or the generation of our fathers and forefathers, recent generations is that has become broadly accepted by the entire Aloh community that a terminally ill patient that is in pain is entitled to say no more. Let me go. Let a do what he wants to do and I do not want to be treated. That is a sac that we find by the moa by

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1. 0:00So our coming session reading out of the plan between holding on and letting go guidelines…
2. 5:1312 months what does have to do with no one knows we're just groping and trying…
3. 10:24but some things we would require a higher your lip of responsibility. And I say if…
4. 15:40severe pain and it's not curable and he's terminally ill I would say we respect the…
5. 20:50there would be no and they'll all die. [snorts] You're a schlama. Okay. So dealing with…
6. 26:10years ago, but when questions pile up on your table, you need to answer it. It's…
7. 31:20was as long as they keep the heart pumping but they determine and verify that there…
8. 36:36and a baby was delivered a baby sheep after the head was cut off. So obviously…
9. 41:52that the moment we shut all of this then everything comes back to normal. So the…
10. 47:03depends. As long as there is no breath, you could no longer be shabas. But to…

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