Parashat HaShavua - Tazria-Metzorah

I am in the midst of studying a passage of Talmud with my 11th Grade Talmud students. In this passage, the rabbis consider employing an argument based on a kal-vachomer (an argument based on logic - a fortiori) to determine that when attempting to save another person’s life, since it is so important to do so, one can kill the perpetrator if necessary. However, the Talmud rejects the possibility of learning this lesson from a kal va’chomer. Human life is so precious, we can not rely on our own logic to conclude that it is permissible to kill, even if to save a life. The Talmud ultimately identifies a different textual tool to arrive at the same conclusion. 

Conversely, in another section of Talmud, the rabbis rely on a kal va’chomer, based on a verse from the beginning of this week’s Torah portion Tazria-Metzorah, to conclude that it is permissible to violate Shabbat in order to save a life. In a discussion about a woman’s purity surrounding childbirth, there is a verse that instructs that a baby boy must be circumcised at eight days old. This verse seems redundant as we already learned the commandment to circumcise from Abraham. Thus, the rabbis conclude, this verse teaches us that even when the eighth day falls on Shabbat, you are obligated to circumcise. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya teaches (Talmud Yoma 85a) that from here you learn that you are required to violate Shabbat to save a life. Rabbi Elazar explains that “if circumcision which involves only one of the 248 limbs of a person overrides the Sabbath, then the whole body certainly overrides the Sabbath'' (translated by Nehama Leibowitz).

Nehama Leibowitz (20th century Israeli Bible scholar) raises the question: how can we conclude that it is required to desecrate the Sabbath in order to save one’s life based on a kal va’chomer (a fortiori) to circumcision? In other words, what is the relationship between circumcision and saving a life? How can we establish one as more stringent than another?

Leibowitz changes the focus from “if you desecrate the Shabbat for a limb, you should desecrate the Shabbat for a life” to focusing on the nature of the commandment. Leibowitz explains that suspending Shabbat for a circumcision is not an act of leniency (you don’t need to observe Shabbat), but an act of stringency – even though the Torah repeats the commandment to observe Shabbat many times, we suspend these requirements in order to enter our children into the covenant on the correct day. And then – says Leibowitz – we can understand Rabbi Elazar’s argument. If we take entering the covenant to be such a stringent commandment, all the more-so, we must prioritize our responsibility to save lives above all else. To quote Leibowitz: “the saving of our lives enables us to maintain our association with the Divine”.

In the evening service, before we recite the Shema, we say: “for they (Torah & mitzvot) are our life and length of days.” May we always remember that above all, our tradition values life and the purpose of mitzvot (commandments) is to give expression, meaning and purpose to a life lived in covenant. 

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Dahlia Kronish
High School Associate Head