Halacha: Focus on the Present or Look at the Big Picture?

Focus on the Present or Look at the Big Picture? 

Should One Fast on צום גדליה if it Will Prevent Him from Fasting on יום כיפור?

Rav Chaim Cohen

There is a fascinating question that the poskim deal with that connects צום גדליה and יום כיפור. Should a person fast on צום גדליה knowing that he will then be too weak to fast on יום כיפור or should he eat on צום גדליה so that he will have strength to fast a week later on יום כיפור.  This is a very fundamental question if a mitzvah which one is obligated to do right now, should be performed regardless of its future ramifications, or does a person need to see the big picture and decide which mitzvah takes precedence. In our case if the person fasts on צום גדליה he will be putting himself in a situation that he will have to eat on יום כיפור which is punishable with כרת.

There are two cases in halacha that are similar to our case.

1.       The בעל המאור says that a person is allowed to go on a boat trip three days before שבת even though when שבת comes he will need to be מחלל שבת.  Although the Shulchan Aruch doesn't bring this opinion by the boat trip, he does agree to this reasoning by a person who is going on a trip to the desert and will need to be מחלל שבת due to the danger of his surroundings. In both of these cases we see that a person only has to look and plan three days ahead before he decides to do an action that eventually will bring him to need to do an עבירה.

2.       The בעל המאור and רמב"ן argue if a person would be allowed to perform a ברית מילה on שבת even though he knows that immediately afterwards he will need to heat up hot water for the baby, which would be a violation of שבת. The רמב"ן says that a person is allowed to do the ברית מילה because we do the mitzvah that is in front of us at this moment.  If we need to heat water afterwards that will not be a problem because פיקוח נפש דוחה שבת .

According to these two cases we can argue that although צום גדליה is a lower level obligation than Yom Kippur, we may still tell a person that he should do the mitzvah that is in front of him and not worry about the future. However, there are poskim who disagree and say that it is better in this case to fast on Yom Kippur and eat on צום גדליה.

Gemar Tov!