Two Levels Of Ones

We learn from this week’s parsha וחי בהם ולא שימות בהם that one doesn’t have to give up their life to avoid violating an averah.  The Gemorah learns out that this doesn’t apply to avodah zarah, gilui ariout and shfichus damim.  What is the original thought process, does one have to give up their life or not?  Tosfos (bottom of Sanhedrin 74b) says that the initial סברא is that one doesn’t have to give up your life, but one would think to learn out from עריות and רציחה that one has to has to give up their life and וחי בהם comes to exclude from that סברא.   Now that we know that own doesn’t have to give up their life to avoid an averah we can view it as a new exemption of וחי בהם or it can be viewed as a גילוי מילתא that being forced is called אונס and it falls under the regular exemption of ולנערה לא תעשה דבר.  The Rambam (Yesoday Hatorah 5:4) rules that in a situation where one must give up their life and the person didn’t, they don’t get punished.  The Chemdas Shlomo siman 38 says we see from here that there is the regular exemption for אונס if one is forced.  There is just an additional obligation to give up your life learnt from ונקדשתי (according to Rambam,) and one violates that obligation but on the averah itself one is excepted because of the general exemption of אונס.

The Rambam counts a negative mitzvah #294 on the Beis Din not to punish one who is אנוס.  The Ramban disagrees, it’s not a mitzvah, it is merely an exemption on the perpetrator from any punishment he cites a proof from the Gemorah that learns out from ולנערה לא תעשה דבר an exemption in a situation of אונס.  In light of the aforementioned Rambam we understand that the Rambam also agrees that it is teaching us the exemption of אונס, however, there the commandment not to punish is necessary for the averot where one violates a commandment by not giving up their life [In other words, when it comes to other averot it’s not even considered an averah but regarding averot that one must give up their life it’s an averah with a פטור עונשין. (See Bais Yechezkal (Sarna) Ketubot siman 3.)]     

When one is deathly ill and gets cured by medicine from avodah zarah the Rambam (ibid 5:6) says that the person gets punished.  The Achronim ask why is it different from being forced by a gentile where there is no punishment?  They differentiate between one who is forced by a gentile, where the person isn’t willingly serving avodah zarah, the person chooses to do the averah but it against his/her will as opposed to the sick person that willingly takes the medicine (see Kovetz Ha’arot #49.)  We see that in regarding other averot that one doesn’t have to give up their life, the petur of deathly sick is from וחי בהם but being forced by someone else would have an additional petur of אונס.  What’s the difference?  Regarding a gentile in his/her 7 commandments.  They would have an exemption of אונס and wouldn’t have to give up their life (see Rambam Melachim 10:2) but they wouldn’t be able to benefit from אבר מן החי even if they are deathly ill because they have no din of וחי בהם  (Minchas Chinuch 296:3.)