חולין יז

The נצי״ב was at a conference in Vienna. In the course of the gathering, several speakers paid tribute to one of the משכילים who had died a short time earlier. The נצי״ב, however, didn’t mention him at all. One of those present turned to him and asked “even after his death, isn’t there something positive that that you can say about him, some aspect of כשרות?” The נצי״ב responded: “Let me tell you a story. There was a wealthy man who had a beautiful, pious and G-d fearing daughter. She was his only child. One day she became deathly ill. He took her to the best of the doctors but there was nothing they could do for her. There was one highly regarded specialist, however, who said she could be saved by eating pork. The girl wouldn’t hear of it, but the father went to the רב to ask a שאלה. The רב told him that if it’s a case of פיקוח נפש, she can eat the חזיר. In light of the ruling by the רב, the girl agreed to eat the חזיר, but insisted that it be a שחיטה כשרה and that the lungs be inspected. And so it was. The שוחט inspected the lungs and found that there was a שאלה. He brought the lungs to the רב, who checked them and said: “If I were presented a שאלה like this concerning the lungs of a kosher animal, I would be פוסק that it’s kosher, but when it comes to a pig, I simply can’t get my mouth to say the word kosher.”

06/10/2021