Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Are you allowed to violate the Torah law to save someone's life?
[00:00:07] So the answer is, you are never allowed to violate the Torah law for any reason, ever.
[00:00:15] But the Torah itself sometimes tells you to violate one of its laws in order to keep the other. You see, we don't live in a linear value society. We always have competing values that we need to contend with.
[00:00:37] You always have choices. And these choices are not only between good and bad. These choices are also between good and better.
[00:00:46] So sometimes you need to forego one good thing in order to get a better thing in order to. To have something more important done.
[00:00:55] It is very important for you to stay home and help your wife. It's important. But sometimes you need to leave your home and go to work, because at this moment, making living for your family is more important.
[00:01:12] So it's not because helping your wife with her children is not important. It's important.
[00:01:18] Just there are things which are, at that moment, are taking precedent.
[00:01:23] So we always live in a world of competing values. And the Torah provides us a complex system of hierarchy of those values. Which ones of them need to be put aside for which ones.
[00:01:36] And Shabbat and saving someone's life is a perfect example of that.
[00:01:42] Another example would be, are you allowed to lie? The Torah specifically says you are not allowed to lie. Not only it says you're not allowed to lie, it says you should distance yourself, you should further yourself from anything which is similar to lie.
[00:01:57] But at the same time, the very Torah says that if your friend walks over to you and says, I'm getting married, I'm engaged, and this is my bride, don't you think she's the most beautiful woman in the world? And you look at her and she is the ugliest thing you've ever seen?
[00:02:15] Now, are you allowed to lie? He asked you for your opinion.
[00:02:19] Should you tell him, I think she's ugly?
[00:02:23] Or should you say, no, she's a beautiful woman.
[00:02:27] So if we would believe in absolute values of every mitzvah, then we would say, you're not allowed to lie. And by the way, Immanuel Kant believed exactly that.
[00:02:39] Do you know that Immanuel Kant believed in absolute value of every moral principle? Which means that he believed that if lying is bad, it should be bad all across in every situation.
[00:02:52] According to Immanuel Kant, if there is a Polish woman who is hiding a Jew from Nazis during the Holocaust and a Nazi is knocking on her door and is asking, do you have any Jews in your house? According to Immanuel Kant, she would be obligated to say, yes, I have a Jew here, because you are not allowed to lie.
[00:03:14] So we Jews tend to disagree with Immanuel Kant, and we say that while the Torah is absolute, every individual Mitzvah of it is not.
[00:03:25] And that's why we have a complex system of this hierarchy of which mitzvah is supposed to be put aside for which.
[00:03:34] So when a Jew is violating Shabbat in order to save someone's life, because he's a medical dancer, because he's taking somebody to a hospital, he is not violating the Torah, but he's violating Shabbat. Why is he violating Shabbat? Because the Torah specifically told him to rely on Shabbat. By the way, this is not entirely true, and we will talk later about it. He's in the case of Shabbat specifically, he's not violating Shabbat, but this is just something that's pertaining to this example.
[00:04:02] So now I'll tell you a story. The brisker Rav, he was a very famous rabbi, was the rabbi of time Brisk, which is breast nowadays.
[00:04:12] Today it's part of Belarusia. Back then, it was part of Lithuania.
[00:04:15] He was known to be very stringent with regards to Torah observance. Anytime, whenever there was a gray area and you could take more lenient approach or more strict approach, he would always take the stricter approach. That was his line of thinking all the time. But when it came to specifically healing people on Shabbos, the example that you brought, he was always very lenient. And one of his students asked him, said, rabbi, you are inconsistent with every other law. You are very strict when it comes to healing on Shabbos, you are very lenient. He said, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not lenient at all.
[00:04:50] I'm not being lenient on Shabbos. I am being strict on the mitzvah to save your health.
[00:04:58] There's a mitzvah in Torah, you should guard your souls. That's what the Torah says. So I am not being lenient on Shabbos. He said, I'm being strict on the mitzvah to care for your health.
[00:05:12] Actually, this is incorrect as well. You know why?
[00:05:15] Because if somebody. It's not an exception. And I'll tell you why. If somebody refuses to drive a patient to a hospital on Shabbos because he's supposed to keep Shabbos, he's actually violating a Torah law. It's not an exception, a leniency which is allowed. It is a specific mitzvah. It's a commandment.
[00:05:34] I'M not allowed to break Shabbos to save someone's life. I'm obligated to break Shabbos to save someone's life. And that's the difference. It's not an exception. That's the rule.
[00:05:46] So I have to save someone life. The same thing if somebody is approaching you and is threatening to kill you.
[00:05:55] Very often people say, I'm allowed to kill him in self defense. Wrong. You're obligated to kill him in self defense. It's not a leniency that the Torah is allowing you to do.
[00:06:07] It is a mitzvah. It's a direct instruction.
[00:06:10] If you are not acting in self defense, you are violating a Torah law. But Torah says thou shalt not murder. That's correct.
[00:06:19] But the Torah specifically says that in the case of self defense, you are obligated to take a necessary step and kill the attacker if necessary.
[00:06:30] So this is a very important principle of the Torah that we always need to pay attention to. What mitzvot are more important than others, which mitzvot are. In every case, we always have at least two competing mitzvot that we need to do.
[00:06:50] You know, the Torah has a constant mitzvah of learning the Torah at every single second. I'm obligated learning the Torah one second. So why am I learning, not learning the Torah every single second? Well, because other mitzvahs I need to do.
[00:07:03] Making money for your family is a mitzvah.
[00:07:06] Eating is a mitzvah. Because I won't be able to survive if I will need sleeping enough hours for you to survive, for you to have a normal functional life is also a mitzvah.
[00:07:17] Teaching your children is a mitzvah. Caring for your friends, helping your friends is a mitzvah.
[00:07:23] So I am neglecting the mitzvah of learning the Torah for all these mitzvahs.
[00:07:30] But if I'm just sitting, doing nothing now, by the way, taking a rest is also mitzvah. If you need to take a rest in order to function properly, it's also mitzvah. But let's say I already rested up.
[00:07:42] And at that moment, if I'm not learning the Torah, if there's nothing else that I can do, then I'm violating this commandment to learn the Torah all the time.
[00:07:50] That's another example of how we always have a mitzvah. But it subsides for other mitzvahs when they arise.
