Yom Kippur - stale water permitted for sick

YNet reported:

A halachic breakthrough by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, leader of Israel's Lithuanian non-Hasidic haredi Ashkenazi Jews, allows patients to drink as much "stale" water as they wish during Yom Kippur.

The innovative ruling was issued following years during which patients were instructed by rabbis to only drink small amounts of water not exceeding 9 cc and consume them once every 15 minutes.

This week, following an appeal by medical activists in the haredi sector, Rabbi Elyashiv ruled that there is no need to drink small amounts of water and that every person with a doctor's approval could consume an unlimited amount of "stale" water as far as Jewish Law is concerned.

"Stale" water is water which has lost its taste and become bitter orsour. This water is only meant to be consumed by patients and must not be drank by healthy people who are capable of fasting. This water has been examined by a pharmacist and medically approved.

The Lev Malka association was the first to take advantage of the ruling and work to implement it at synagogues. The association's chairman, Rabbi Aharon Aberman, immediately turned to a pharmacist and asked him to prepare a large amount of "stale water" containing salt or onion, which cause the water to lose its natural flavor and give it a bitter taste.

"The seemingly stale water is bitter or sour water compounded by a professional pharmacist, and will cause no medical harm. On the contrary, the water's only flaw is its taste, enabling the patients to drink unlimited amounts of it," Aberman explained.[...]