Nobel Prize Winner Aaron Ciechanover on Faith, Medicine, and Jewish Law

Professor Aaron Ciechanover, who was the first Israeli scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared a personal reflection during a concert about his connection to religion and his long standing relationship with Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein. Their acquaintance began during the Yom Kippur War and evolved into decades of meaningful dialogue between science, medicine, and Jewish law.

Ciechanover explained that his first connection to religion came through Jewish cantorial music and the deeply moving prayers of the High Holidays.

A Battlefield Question During the Yom Kippur War

He described a second turning point that was also rooted in faith. During the Yom Kippur War, he served as a combat physician alongside a religious Orthodox Jewish colleague. Amid the chaos of war, they began discussing a profound medical dilemma faced by a lone doctor on the battlefield.

When there are multiple wounded soldiers, some severely injured and others lightly hurt, who should be treated first? If the doctor treats the lightly injured first, the critically wounded may die. If the critically wounded are treated first, the lightly injured may deteriorate. How should casualties be triaged in such a life and death situation?

The two decided to bring their question to Rabbi Zilberstein.

Seeking Halachic Guidance

Ciechanover recalled the remarkable reception they received. Rabbi Zilberstein explained that such a question was worthy of a Great Sanhedrin, as it involved matters of life and death. The doctors did not come seeking moral direction, as physicians already operate with their own ethical framework. Rather, they wanted to understand what Jewish law says about the issue. For them, the rabbi functioned as a judge who analyzes precedent, much like a legal system that relies on prior rulings.

The rabbi told them he would need several days to research the matter and consult with his father in law, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who served as a leading halachic authority. A few days later, he provided them with a written response grounded in halachic sources and precedents. He emphasized that the ruling was intended only for them as medical professionals because it involved sensitive life and death decisions that could be misunderstood by those outside the field.

A Lifelong Dialogue Between Medicine and Halacha

The doctors were deeply impressed and returned with more questions. Today, fifty years later, that initial meeting has grown into a large ongoing circle that gathers once a month. Rabbi Zilberstein has since become one of the foremost halachic decisors in the fields of medicine and Jewish law.

Ciechanover noted that many ultra Orthodox Jews consult a rabbi before going to the hospital, and in recent years seven volumes of Rabbi Zilberstein’s rulings have been published, covering a wide range of medical issues.

The Intellectual Richness of Jewish Law

What captivated Ciechanover was not only the rabbi’s wisdom and expertise, but the depth of the halachic tradition itself. Although he does not define himself as religious in the conventional sense, he expressed amazement that even the most modern questions, from genetic diseases to gene modification, have halachic precedents.

He concluded by emphasizing that the literary and intellectual richness of Jewish law is truly extraordinary, offering a framework that continues to engage with the most advanced ethical and scientific challenges of the modern world.