EXOD559 We should not follow the letter of the law if doing so will lead to the opposite of what the Torah intended. For example, biblical law rules that striking one's parents is forbidden, and a capital crime. According to the rabbinic understanding of this verse, the offense merits a death sentence only if the child draws blood. [We have no record of this punishment ever being carried out]. Later Jewish law further qualified the law, permitting a child to bleed a parent in a surgical procedure. [Bleeding was a procedure used in pre-modern medicine by which supposedly sick blood was drawn from an ill person with the intention of improving the person's health]. Surprisingly, the Talmud justifies this provision on the basis of the verse, "Love your neighbor as yourself." What is the possible connection between bleeding one's parents and loving one's neighbor as oneself? Common sense caused the Rabbis to reason thus: treat your neighbor-in this case , your parents-as you would want to be treated; since you would want your own blood drawn in such a circumstance to improve your health, it is fine to draw your parent's blood for the same reason.