We love it when other outlets feature Israel Book Shop books. A few days ago, TheLakewoodScoop.com, and incredible website with all manner of Lakewood news, excerpted Emergencies in Halacha, a book about emergencies in halacha. They did it with permission, of course, like anyone who excerpts our books. And then they gave us permission to reprint it here. Select Lakewood Scoop comments follow the article. You can read the original piece at http://www.thelakewoodscoop.com/news/2009/12/fire-on-shabbos-what-do-you-do.html .
We all hear it all too often. The wailing of the fire trucks sirens and the roar of their engines. When a fire occurs on Shabbos (as it did for a Lakewood resident last Shabbos, as reported on Thelakewoodscoop.com) just as is the case of all other emergencies, people panic as they begin contemplating what to do. While we all know that pikuach nefesh takes precedence over all of the Torah at times of emergency and desperation, this clarity can become blurred. TLS got permission from The Israel Book Shop to reprint a section of their newly published Sefer Emergencies in Halacha which deals with the halachic issues of fires.
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