I am a medical student in the United States and am in the process of choosing a residency. Here in the States, there are some specialties in which one can obtain a residency that does not require working on Shabbos (eg, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry and radiology), whereas there are other specialties where working on Shabbos is a requirement (eg, general surgery, OB/Gyn, urology, cardiology). Is it permissible to pursue training in one of these latter fields in the United States?
It is preferable to train in a Shomer-Shabbat program. If one feels very strongly that he can best serve as a physician in a field which has no such program, it is permissible to train in a regular program. However, one should be very knowledgeable concerning the laws of Shabbat, which is quite a complicated matter.
AN elderly Jewish gentleman with a history of sick sinus syndrome has a permanent pacemaker placed in 2000. His most recent pacemaker interrogation shows the
כבוד הרב שלום.שמי *** ואני בת 30. לפני כשלושה חודשים חליתי בסכרת נעורים. אשמח אם תוכל להפנות אותי לאיזשהו מקום במקרא שבו מתואר אדם הסובל
