25 Apr ACHAREI MOS: GET A LIFE!

The pasuk [verse]
says, “You should
keep My statutes and
My laws, which if a
man obeys, (‘v’chai
bahem’) he shall live
through them, I am Hashem.” [Vayikra
18:5] The Gemara [Talmud] learns from
this source that if a person is faced with
the choice of committing a sin or being
murdered [or alternatively, neglecting a
mitzva or being murdered], the halacha
requires the person to commit the aveira
[sin] or neglect the mitzva, and not die.
However, there are three exceptions:
avoda zarah [idol worship], shfichas
damim [murder], and giluy arayus [illicit
relations].
Barring these three exceptions, the
halacha says that one should eat pork,
violate the Shabbos, eat bread on Pesach,
and do not die. Why? Because we learn
from this verse: these are the mitzvos that
I gave you, “v’chai bahem,” and you
should live by them. The Gemara

[Sanhedren 74a] interprets this to mean
that “you should live by them, and not die
by them.”
A cursory examination of this pasuk
would seem to indicate that the Torah is
telling us that human life is more precious
than keeping the mitzvos. Therefore, if
you have a choice between observing
Shabbos or staying alive, your life is more
valuable than the mitzva. This is a general
rule: life is more important than the
mitzvos, with just three exceptions.
Rav Moshe Feinstein Zt”l, in his sefer
[book] “Igros Moshe,” says (in the course
of answering a query on a different
subject) that this common understanding
of the pasuk is incorrect. That is not what
the pasuk is saying, and this is as basic as
a Targum Onkelos. [The Targum Onkelos
is a nearly-literal translation to Aramaic of
the words in the Torah, with a minimum
of interpolated commentary.]

The Targum Onkelos translates this
verse as: “and you should live through
them in the World to Come.” In other
words, the verse is not telling us to stay
alive and neglect the mitzvos, because life
is more precious than mitzvos. The pasuk
is telling us that the most precious thing in
life is keeping mitzvos, because they
bring us to olam haba, the World to Come.
Therefore, if I have a choice between
observing the Shabbos or being murdered,
the Torah says, “live!” Why? Not because
life, for its own sake, is more precious
than G-d’s Commandments. Rather, life is
precious because you can do those
Commandments! Therefore, do work on
this Shabbos so you can keep so many
more Shabbasos in the future. Eat chometz
on Pesach. Why? So you can go on and do
more mitzvos, and be worthy of life in the
world to come.
This is an entirely different perspective.
Life is not valuable just for the sake of life
itself, without a purpose. Life is not

valuable simply in order for a person to
work, do errands and go to ball games.
That is not what makes life worth living!
What does make life worth living?
“V’chai bahem” – “l’chayei alma” [in the
world to come]. This life leads to a goal.
The Torah is telling us to violate the
Shabbos and to eat chometz [leaven] on
Pesach. Why? Because a human life is
valuable because it can do so many more
mitzvos in this world. Therefore, violate
the Shabbos once so that you can observe
Shabbos many more times.