– Q. Choshuver Contemporary Rov Shlit’a. I take care of an elderly person and take him to shul on a wheelchair on Shabbos.
On this troubled times, there is often a patrol police car stationed outside our large shul during and after davening.

Last Shabbos we had a very nice great and well served Bar Mitzva Kiddush, and as I was taking my patient out of shul home, I was stopped by our “friendly” them. Likely after they observed all of us and my own walking crossing the street pushing the wheelchair, they requested from me an alcohol test.

I did not want to argue with them and call a lawyer on Shabbos or being taken to a police station, I just wanted to take my patient and myself home and I had to agree. I told them that following my religious principles, I cannot take a electronic breath test during Shabbos.

They proposed a urine test and I had to accept. B”H it all went well. Yet I kept wondering if there is an ‘Issur’ on taking a urine strip color test on Shabbos and maybe I can sue them for forcing me to do it? What is the Halacha on that?

A. On question 2010 we wrote:
“I have diabetes Type 2. I need to check my sugar levels a number of times a day to ascertain how much insulin to inject. To inject insulin without checking the sugar level is dangerous because injecting too much insulin can result in potentially fatal insulin shock.

In order to check my sugar level, I need to insert a test strip into the testing machine. When I (do so, the machine beeps twice and is then ready for a blood application upon the strip. I then use a mechanical pen. I push the top of the pen to tighten the spring and then press a mechanical button that releases the spring, causing the needle to jab into my finger. I then push a drop of blood out, using a finger of my other hand, and I touch the drop to the strip. The machine informs me on the LCD screen of what my sugar level is. I then remove the strip to be discarded and the screen goes blank.

On Shabbos, Yom Kippur and Yom Tov I apply certain changes to the procedure. I insert the strip into the machine in an abnormal manner. Instead of depressing the mechanical button with my finger, I use my teeth.

Instead of pressing the drop of blood from my finger with a finger of my other hand, I press my finger to a hard surface, such as the table or shelf, to get the drop of blood out. After the sugar level is determined, I remove the strip from the machine with my teeth.” See rest of the answer. (at question 2010).

In our particular case, for necessary testing of blood alcohol, Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that it is permitted.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a.