



The New York Post reports that atow-truck driver delivered a Jewish baby yesterday when the baby’s father, an Orthodox Jew, wouldn’t touch his wife for "religious reasons" and instead stood on an East Harlem street and tried to flag down passing drivers.



Antonio Paulino was driving in East Harlem when a man flagged him down.



“He said, ‘My wife is giving birth,’” Paulino told the Post.



But, the father-to-be told Paulino, he couldn’t touch the baby or the mother for religious reasons.



“I reached in and took the baby out,” Paulino told the Post.



Halakhicly, the father-to-be was obligated to help his wife and the baby. Helping a woman in the middle of childbirth is pikuakh nefesh, the saving of life, and therefore the father-to-be was mandated to help his wife.



Instead, he stood on a street and flagged down a tow truck driver.



There has to be a huge gap in a person’s knowledge to act that way.

[Hat Tips: Moshe Ber and Seymour.]