Poison, Presumption, and the Limits of Legal Thinking

Our Gemara on Amud Beis draws a distinction between doubts that affect kashrus versus doubts that affect danger to health. When it comes to kashrus, we follow various legal formulae such as majority, chazakah and other principles. However, if we are unsure of an item’s toxicity, such as water left exposed which may have snake venom in it, we cannot rely on legalistic principles to ensure that it isn’t poisonous.

However, is it really that simple? If a person treats his religious principles and fear of God with due reverence, why would he be less concerned about something being unkosher than about being poisonous? If anything, the opposite is true because if one ingests poison, they die a single death, but if they commit a spiritual transgression, they are dying in the afterlife. In the words of Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai on his deathbed (Berachos 28a):

“I cry in fear of heavenly judgment, as the judgment of the heavenly court is unlike the judgment of man. If they were leading me before a flesh and blood king whose life is temporal, who is here today and dead in the grave tomorrow; if he is angry with me, his anger is not eternal and, consequently, his punishment is not eternal; if he incarcerates me, his incarceration is not an eternal incarceration, as I might maintain my hope that I would ultimately be freed. If he kills me, his killing is not for eternity, as there is life after any death that he might decree. Moreover, I am able to appease him with words and even bribe him with money, and even so I would cry when standing before royal judgment. Now that they are leading me before the supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He, Who lives and endures forever and all time; if He is angry with me, His anger is eternal; if He incarcerates me, His incarceration is an eternal incarceration; and if He kills me, His killing is for eternity. I am unable to appease Him with words and bribe him with money.”

The Chasam Sofer explains that the key difference is what the Torah allows and forbids. Since the Torah itself permits substances that may be unkosher if they are nullified or subject to certain assumptions, in effect they become kosher. The same law that prohibits can also say it’s permitted. However, poison is poison and will not change due to legalisms.

On the surface, this makes sense. Halacha is part of a legal process but snake venom is part of the physical world. Yet this too is not so simple. The very same Chasam Sofer famously rules that the physical world is subject to Halacha. In a responsa (Shu”t Chasam Sofer, O.C. 14) he cites numerous examples of how a rabbinic halachic decision of declaring the new month, seasons and leap years can even retroactively change physical characteristics such as physical maturity of humans and ripening of fruit. He also famously rules that medical matters for........

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