Did the Chazon Ish violate לֹא תַעֲמֹד עַל-דַּם רֵעֶךָ? Did Chazal?

This is an interesting thought if one assumes that Chazal (and various modern Gedolim of note) know beruach hakodesh all of modern science, and actually all that science will ever discover.

The pasuk in Vayikra 19:16 reads:

טז לֹא-תֵלֵךְ רָכִיל בְּעַמֶּיךָ, לֹא תַעֲמֹד עַל-דַּם רֵעֶךָ: אֲנִי, ה'.

16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.

Now, a recent Cross-Currents post speculates on whether it would have been "better" for the Chazon Ish to have become a doctor, for with his medical brilliance, he surely would have found a cure for cancer. While this is unlikely, there is a further question to this: if his medical knowledge was the result of ruach hakodesh, how could he stand by and not cure people?! What sort of cruelty is this? Thus, in the comment section there (numbering actually starts at 6):

1. May I ask a related question? Curing cancer is not just a Kiddush HaShem matter – there is also the mundane issue of Pikuach Nefesh, saving lives.

   How far out of our way are we obligated to go for Pikuach Nefesh matters? If I see a wounded person in the street, I am obviously obligated to bandage the wounds as best I can, and administer CPR if necessary. Am I obligated to attend CPR classes and carry bandages with me in case they prove necessary?

   Comment by Ori — June 24, 2009 @ 11:46 am

2. There is a well known story that the GRA’s parents did not let him study medicine/pharmacology (and it is well known that the GRA studied all chachmot and valued them – but that’s for another debate) because had he studied this he would have been required to apply it to save lives.

   Question: If the CI had attained this level of knowledge greater than MD’s(and there are other stories of this nature including iirc a surgical direction for brain surgery), why was he not bound to be “meishiv aveidah” and use this knowledge to cure those who others could not cure?

   KT

   Comment by Joel Rich — June 24, 2009 @ 12:12 pm

I would add: It is fine for Hakadosh Baruch Hu to impose plagues on humanity. For He is entirely Separate from mankind and mankind's understanding. And this is the way the world is run. Thus, Hashem can impose misa biydei Shamayim and it is not murder. But for a human being to cause a plague, or to murder someone, or to stand back and withhold a cure that will save someone's life -- that is wrong and evil.

The "answer" was provided before the question, in this case. The preceding comment had an answer that

I once heard (from a reliable source) that the Chazon Ish had said that while he could find a cure for cancer -if he did a worse disease would show up in its wake.
The point of it was that there is always going to be a “machaleh” for which we have no cure by which Hashem hides behind. That is getting off the subject and a whole different disccusion.

Comment by Benshaul

So of course the Chazon Ish was kol yachol, and mystically knew everything. To cope with the deep theological difficulty it presents, the answer is that cancer is just Hashem's messenger, and there are many such messengers. So curing cancer does no one any good. (Would this apply to doctors researching such cures? Are they wasting their lives on nonsense and futility?)

The same can be said for Chazal, who knew about the germ theory of disease, but concealed this knowledge even as thousands of Jews and gentiles died.

On the other hand, if the Chazon Ish was doing his best, and Chazal were doing their best, given the medical knowledge available at their time, then this "difficulty" never gets off the ground.

See also here and here at the Jewish Worker. And here and here at Divrei Chaim.