- Educating a child with developmental challenges:[1]
Feeding him an Issur:[2] Although a person who is halachically classified as shoteh (legally incompetent due to mental incapacity) is exempt from the obligations of Torah and mitzvot, nevertheless it remains prohibited for others to actively cause such a person to transgress a Torah prohibition.
Protesting his actions:[3] There is no obligation for a father or any other Jew to prevent or protest a Shoteh who acts on his own initiative to perform a transgression.
Institution without kosher food:[4] With respect to placing such an individual in an institution for the mentally impaired that does not provide kosher food, the Poskim rule that it is permitted to send a child with severe intellectual disability to a non‑kosher facility.[5] This leniency applies only where the individual is deemed completely incompetent (shoteh gamur). However, if the individual is not fully incompetent and possesses some capacity for understanding and education in matters of Torah and mitzvot—such as individuals with Down syndrome or similar conditions, or a cheresh (deaf individual) who is capable of speech and comprehension—then one should refrain from sending them to such institutions, as they are amenable to at least partial religious instruction and observance.
[1] See Piskeiy Teshuvos 343:10
[2] See Admur 266:10 “Nevertheless, when one gives it to him—or even to a cheresh or a shoteh—it must be given to them only after they have already lifted their feet to walk, and it must be taken from them when they wish to stop, in order that they not perform an act of lifting and placing (akira and hanacha), as explained above. For even though one is not commanded regarding their resting [i.e., cessation of labor], nevertheless, one is certainly warned by the Torah not to feed them a prohibited item directly, as will be explained in siman 343. And this, that one gives it to them in such a manner, is permissible, even though…”; Michaber 266:6; Tosafus, Piskei Riaz, Ramban, Rashba on Shabbos 153b; Chasam Sofer O.C. 83; P”M Pesicha Koleles 2:1; 267 M”Z 4; Imrei Bina Shabbos 9; Kaf Hachaim 343:21;
Other Opinions: Some Poskim rule that there is no Issur of feeding a Shoteh non-Kosher food or other Issurim. [Terumas Hadeshen 62, brought in Chasam Sofer ibid; Shivas Tziyon O.C. 4]
[3] Minchas Chinuch Mitzvah 5; Pesach Hadvir 343:6; Kaf Hachaim 343:8
[4] Chasam Sofer O.C. 83 and in Hagahos 343:11; Kaf Hachaim 343:22; Igros Moshe 2:88; Shevet Halevi 9:4; Minchas Asher 2:47; Piskeiy Teshuvos 343:10
[5] The rationale is that this is considered indirect consumption of non‑kosher food rather than direct feeding, which is prohibited.
