Reply To: Medicating vs Spanking

even when something is “allowed” in general, the question whether a particular person is allowed to use it is not trivial. When you say “when done sparingly and with yishuv hadaas” this leaves a lot of wiggle room – and you are giving it to a person who already asked to do something extreme. Did the same person already try all other methods? asked shailos? read books about education? excluded influence of bad friends and teachers? tried working on his own middos? if yes, these questions might have been posted here. If the first question is about spanking, this raises questions.

R Slifkin in his “Lying for truth” brings a number of heterim for lying when absolutely necessary, but he keeps Baal Shem Tov’s caveat till the last page: if a person lied inappropriately once in his lfe, then he is not eligible to lie l’derech shalom, etc. same caveat may apply here – if you ever got angry ….