Which a person should do them and live through them. (Vayikra 18:5)
What is the source that saving a life takes precedence over keeping Shabbos? ...Said Rav Yehudah, said Shmuel: If I was there, I would have said my source is better than yours: “And live through them” – implying, and not die through them. (Yoma 85b)
The Torah teaches us in this verse that pikuach nefesh, saving a life, pushes aside Shabbos observance, and in fact, almost every mitzvah in the Torah. Aside from the big three, we can transgress any prohibition to save a life.
Let’s understand why.
Chazal and early Torah sources tell us not only that all the upper worlds are reflected here, in the world of physical actions, but that their very existence and functioning and channeling of Divine goodness is all decided here.
Our physical world could be compared to a control box in a building. It has buttons that control a tremendous system of machines, engines and other powerful things. Let’s say the whole system is worth a hundred million dollars. The actual buttons in the box are actually worth very little. They could be replaced for fifty or sixty bucks. But they control the whole system.
These buttons hold within them all the things that can be done in the building. One button turns on the electricity in a certain wing, another button in the next wing, the third button turns on the engine of the machines, etc. This is where you have control over the whole tremendous system, and it all depends on pressing these buttons.
Pikuach nefesh means saving the body, because everything depends on the body. Everything goes according to the amount of action.
If the body passes away, there are no more “buttons.” You can’t run anything. When a person dies, rachamana litzlan, what seems to happen? The nefesh is still there, the ruach is still there, the neshamah is still there, and so the higher parts of the soul. Everything is there. But what’s the problem? There’s no “button.” There is no one to run the whole system. In such a case, everything comes to naught.
So are all the upper worlds tied to a person’s body. When the body ascends, they ascend with it, and when it falls, chas v’shalom, they fall too.
Even in Tefilah, which is service of the heart, we need the participation of the body. It’s not enough for the mouth to speak, because Tefilah needs כל עצמותי תאמרנה – “All my bones shall say.” This is why there is a minhag to sway when davening. And when we recite the Kedushah, we jump up a little. We get the body involved in the Tefilah.
When we recite the Kedushah, we are, so to speak, in the world of the angels, and ostensibly, the right thing to do is be silent and stand motionless. Even so, the body jumps and elevates itself. It thereby elevates everything, because the body is a tremendous tool that everything depends on.
The body can grant a person unparalleled spiritual power. It can also drag him down to the depths of depravity.
It is thus so important that protecting the body takes precedence over the whole Torah.
