Here’s another ethical issue and Jewish source response:

Case

In 1848 there was a big cholera epidemic in Vilna, Poland.  Lots of Jews were dying. Yom Kippur was approaching. Some Jews argued that no Jew should fast on this Yom Kippur because the lack of food might make people get sick faster.  They argued that this year, skipping the fast would save lives. Their argument was that they needed physical strength. Another group of Jews argued that fasting and repenting was the only way to save lives.  They said that God was the only thing that could keep them safe and heal them. They decided that they needed spiritual strength.

Answer

Rabbi Israel Salanter faced this real problem.  He had to consider a number of texts.

[a] Maimonides teaches that fasting on Yom Kippur is a major mitzvah:  “A positive mitzvah concerning Yom Kippur is that we are required to abstain from eating and drinking on that day.  This is taught in Leviticus 19:28, ‘You shall afflict yourself.” Our tradition explains that ‘afflict’ means ‘fasting.’  If a person fasts on Yom Kippur, s/he fulfills a positive mitzvah; if a person eats or drinks, he both breaks a positive mitzvah and violates a negative mitzvah, as it is taught in Leviticus 23:2 ‘One who will not fast on that day will be cut off.’” (Yom Kippur 1:40)

[b] However, he also teaches: “The Shabbat is overruled whenever danger to life is involved, just as we do with all other mitzvot.  Therefore, we may attend to the needs of a sick person who is in danger as prescribed by their physicians, and we may violate, on his behalf, even one hundred Shabbatot, so long as he stands in need and is in danger, or if the matter is in any doubt.

It is forbidden to delay in any way, violating the Shabbat in order to help the dangerously ill, as it says in Leviticus 18:5, ‘And he shall live by them.’  This means a person shall live by the mitzvot and should not die from observing them. You see the laws of Torah do not breathe vengeance, but rather mercy, loving kindness, and peace.”  (Shabbat 2;3)

[c] On the eve of Yom Kippur, Israel Salanter appeared on the bimah and publically ate – urging all of the Jewish community not to fast that year.

Joel Grishaver, “You Be the Judge”, pgs. 106-107

Used with permission from Joel Grishaver