Q. In reference to one of your recent teshuvos, I, an insulin user, requires a constant monitoring of my blood glucose level. Until now I was doing it by extracting blood samples, which you wrote, is a severe shailah on Shabbos of an Issur Deuraisso. I changed to using a sensor that is attached to my arm and connected directly to a blood vessel, and when placed next to an electronic reader gives the required reading. Two questions in regard to this attachment. Can I wear it on the street on Shabbos, if there is no eruv and do I have to take it off to go to the mikva?
A. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that as far as carrying the embedded on the flesh sensor is concerned, it is permitted to wear it during Shabbos, since it is well attached and one will not take it off when being in the street.
However, as far as a woman wearing it when immersing in the mikva is concerned, the Rov’s opinion is that it constitutes a chatzitza or interposition between the body and the mikva waters and should therefore be removed before tevila. Normally these battery operated embedded sensors last about two weeks, and their replacement could be programmed to coincide with the immersion.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as advised by Horav Shlomo Miller and Horav Aharon Miller Shlit’a