When it’s not permitted to break even the smallest of commadments to save a life
An Orthodox Jew being abused by Nazis in Kozienice, Poland
(Yad Vashem Photo Archive)
We know that Torah was given to Israel for no other reason than for Israel to live (instead of die) by its commandments. In Leviticus 18:5 we read: “Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the L-rd.” The Jewish sages have long held that to preserve one’s life it is permissible to break any commandment of Torah, except for idolatry (any Chillul Hashem, or the defamation of G-d’s name), sexual sin, and murder. This principal is known as Pikuach nefesh, or preservation of life. If a person’s life or health are in danger, one may break even the Sabbath to help preserve either life or health. If there is no kosher food available and one is starving, a Jew can eat whatever food is available to save his life, even the flesh of swine. If a hemophiliac Jew could die from blood loss, he is permitted to remain uncircumcised. One can break the solemn fast of Yom Kippur if to do so would avoid endangering one’s life or health. There are many other such examples where the preservation of life overrides Torah.
However, there are those times when breaking even the smallest, most seemingly inconsequential of commandments of Torah is forbidden:
When does this rule apply? Not in time of religious persecution. Instead, during the time of religious persecution, a man must be willing to give up his life even for the least demanding of commandments, as is said “You shall not profane My Holy Name – I am to be hallowed among the children of Israel” (Lev. 22:32). (Tos Shab 16:7)
Excellent, Gene, and thank you for reminding us the cost to be a Jew. There is cost indeed. Many don’t know about it and like to play jewish.
I reasoned that it would be permissible that one eat pork to save their own life. However, if a persecutor were inviting them to eat pork (in which case concession would be construed as agreement), then no.
As was the case of the Maccabees.
“However, if a persecutor were inviting them to eat pork (in which case concession would be construed as agreement), then no.”
This reminds me of the story of Corrie ten Boom, who is my hero and a hero to many Jewish people. She was a Dutch Christian whose family had a great appreciation for the Jewish people and hid fleeing Jews in their home from the Nazis, all at great personal cost. What is amazing is that she provided her Jewish guests with kosher food (and this at the time when there was barely any regular food to go around) and honored Shabbat for their sake. She did all this with no ulterior motives – even though a deeply devout Christian who had a brother who was a Dutch Reformed minister tasked with converting the Jews, she herself never pressured her Jewish guests to convert to Christianity and, as far as I know, there’s no evidence that any of them became Christians after the war.
This is really interesting. I am not Jewish, but these exact principles are also in my faith, and I want to learn more of the Jewish faith and history. I stumbled on this by accident actually, I was searching Jewish-Arab similar genetic facial features lol (I’m a curious person and prone to boredom). Great blog, lots of info set out in a precise, clear way, will be looking forward to reading more. xx
Thank you, Hana! Welcome to my site.