The Talmud says that overriding Shabbat to save a life (or even only possibly save a life) is based on a fundamental principle of the Torah in our parashah, one that undergirds all the laws of the Torah. “You shall observe my statutes and rulings [in the Torah] which a person shall do and live by them. I am the Lord” (Leviticus 18:5). Says the Talmud: “You shall live by them (= the commandments) and not die by them” (Babylonian Talmud Yoma 85b). The laws of the Torah were given to people to live by them. God wants humans to be good to each other, to save each other’s lives—to just plain live more. The Torah was given to live by.

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