Juggling Conflicting Mitzvos Throughout Our Day
In this week’s Parsha, we read two of the four parshiyos found in tefillin. In the times of the Gemara, when people were more focused and constantly remembered that they were wearing tefillin, the practice was to wear them throughout the day. However, today, the prevalent custom is to wear them only while davening.
While m’ikur hadin one should wear tefillin the whole day, the Mechaber (O.C. 38;8) writes that sofrei and dealers of sta”m (sefer torah tefillin and mezuzos) are patur from wearing tefillin throughout the day because of the rule oseik bimitzvah patur min hamitzvah. The source for this rule is in the Parsha of Shema, where we are commanded וְדִבַּרְתָּ֖ בָּ֑ם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ֤ בְּבֵיתֶ֙ךָ֙ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ֣ בַדֶּ֔רֶךְ “and you shall speak in them (torah) when you’re sitting at home and going on your way” (Devarim 6,7). The Gemara (Sukka 25A) learns from the words YOUR way that when one is performing a mitzvah (going on G-ds path), one is patur from mitzvos. Based on this, some Achronim rule that the petur brought in Shulchan Aruch only applies to people who intend to provide the community with tefillin and are thus strictly doing a mitzvah. However, if one works in sta”m for financial reasons, it is considered a personal endeavor and thus, obligated to wear tefillin the whole day.
Regarding medical professionals, Rabbi Yitzchok Zilberstein rules that even when receiving payment for their services, they are considered oseik bimitzvah and thus patur from wearing tefillin throughout the day. His ruling is based on the fundamental difference between a sta”m merchant and a physician on-call. While a medical professional is actively engaged in the premier form of hashovas aveidah, a sta”m merchant is technically just a salesman who sells religious articles. Accordingly, the merchant can only invoke the petur of oseik bimitzvah if he has noble intentions. However, because a physician's actions are inherently a mitzvah, they patur the physician regardless of intent.
While a medical professional is patur from tefillin when dealing with a patient, there is a caveat as to how far one can take this heter. R’ Shlomo Zalman rules that if one can easily break from patient care to don tefillin without undermining patient care and health, one must do so because in a case where both mitzvos can be carried out without hindrance, there is no petur of oseik bimitzvah. R' Y.Y. Neuwirth ruled (Nishmas Avraham O.C. 93;4,1) that patient care is not only limited to the times a practitioner is physically engaged with the patient but extends to dealing with paperwork such as charting or even discharge papers. Although this is not technically treating the patient because the doctor's intentions and actions are part of patient care, this is considered an oseik bimitzvah and patur from other mitzvos. The Biur Halacha extends this even to a physician who needs his designated break to focus while back on shift. Because the purpose of the rest period is to perform a mitzvah, even the break has the status of the mitzvah itself.
For further discussion regarding the scribe himself see Biur Halacha 38;24.