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Who Shoulders the Cost of Saving Lives? Reappraising a Teshuvah of Rav Moshe Feinstein

JL;DR SUMMARY Rabbi Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli revisits a pivotal teshuvah (responsum) by Rav Moshe Feinstein to the Bobover Rebbe, R. Shlomo Halberstam, about financial responsibility under Jewish law when borrowing to save lives. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

HolocaustJewish LawTeshuvahPikuach NefeshRav Moshe FeinsteinFinancial ResponsibilityCommunal ResponsibilityBobover RebbeTakkanahLoan Repayment

Places mentioned

United States
"Having arrived in America, he now wanted to know if Jewish law required him to pay these loans back."
Budapest, Hungary
"attempting to flee the Nazis, he had borrowed money to smuggle other Jews out of Hungary as well."

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Retrieved 2026-05-25 05:30:40 UTC
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