Pharmacy Law in the Bible

Rating Advisory: B

This past week's parshah contains the final commandment of Biblical civil law (Deut. 25:13-16):

	13 Thou shalt not have in thy bag diverse weights [אבנים], a great and a small.
	14 Thou shalt not have in thy house diverse measures, a great and a small.
	15 A perfect and just weight shalt thou have; a perfect and just measure shalt thou have; that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
	16 For all that do such things, even all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.

In the olden days you weighed an item by balancing it against an object of a known weight. The Bible here admonishes us to use only accurate weights in our dealings. (Also see Lev. 19:35-36.)

There is a general principle of midah ke-neged midah (MKNM), which essentially means that a reward or punishment is specifically commensurate with a particular action. But where is the MKNM in the above section? What is it about honest behavior that merits long life (or conversely, deceitful behavior that warrants short life)?

Some of my pharmaceutics classes in school had a laboratory component in which we learned how to compound medications. The most important principle that was instilled in us was the role of proper weighing technique. We learned to calibrate properly a balance scale, calculate sensitivity requirements and estimate acceptable margins of error. Of course we had a lot of practice with actually weighing medications on a balance scale using a set of weights (אבנים). When grading our final products, the lab techs always confirmed that we had properly weighed out our materials.

Learning proper weighing technique in the laboratory is important because in the real world a bad measurement when compounding a medication could have dire consequences. If you overweigh an antibiotic that requires a minimum inhibitory concentration to be effective, a dangerous pathogen might not be eradicated; if you underweigh a blood thinner, you could induce a hemorrhagic episode.

I don’t know what the MKNM relationship is between proper weights and a long life is when considering the most popular use of scales, i.e., business and commerce; but there is certainly a MKNM relationship if one considers the commandment regarding proper weights within the context of pharmaceutics practice. Use proper weights to protect your patient’s life and you yourself will be rewarded with long life; be derelict with your weights and endanger your patient--your own life will be short.