Rav Shlomo Kluger and the Shabbos Message to Belz
A messenger rides into Brody on Shabbos asking the Belzer Rebbe to pray for a dying man. Rav Shlomo Kluger is aghast; the Rebbe's son-in-law defends it.
Rabbi Shlomo Kluger, zt’l, was the chief dayan in Brody, Galicia. One Shabbos, someone rode into town with an urgent message for the first Belzer Rebbe, Rav Shalom Rokeach, zt’l. There was a critically sick person in a neighboring village who wanted the Rebbe to daven for him, and the villagers there had decided that a message to that effect may be sent even on Shabbos.
Rav Kluger was aghast at the blatant chillul Shabbos employed in delivering the message to the Belzer Rebbe. Granted, only rabbinic prohibitions were violated, but who had authorized public chillul Shabbos, even if only on a d’rabbanan level?
The Belzer Rebbe’s son-in-law defended the action based on a daf in Bava Basra 156b. The Gemara discusses an individual who is critically ill and wants to distribute his property on Shabbos. In truth, the rabbis instituted that a critically ill individual may distribute property with an oral declaration. However, this individual wants the declaration to be accompanied by a formal act of acquisition, a kinyan. We may perform such an act, even though performing such an act is rabbinically proscribed on Shabbos. The Gemara explains that this leniency was granted so as to put the patient’s mind at ease. There is an element of concern that causing the patient to worry might shorten his life.