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.)
