The Cohain shall write all of these curses on the scroll and dissolve them in the bitter waters (Bamidbar 5:23)

This week’s parsha contains the interesting passage of the Sota. A woman is found to be in seclusion with a man other than her husband, but no one knows what happened behind the closed doors. The Cohain makes a special drink which is given to the woman which will test to see if she performed an illicit act behind the closed doors or not. Part of making the drink included the writing Hashem’s name on a parchment and it being erased in water, which is a forbidden act! How could the Cohain be commanded to erase Hashem’s name? The answer is that he does it to bring Shalom Bayis, peace between a husband and wife. If the woman is found innocent, she is blessed with the birth of a baby and she and her husband live happily ever after. Sometimes we are told to break a certain law to show how much more important the other law is. Hashem is willing to have His name erased in order to bring Shalom Bayis.

Last week I was learning laws of Shabbos and something bothered me. If there is a life and death situation on Shabbos then we immediately break Shabbos and perform any type of work (except for the 3 cardinal sins: murder, illicit relations, idol worship) to save the person. If the situation is very serious, but a few extra moments will not cause any harm to the person, then we should try our best to minimize doing a forbidden activity, if possible. For example, let’s say there is no Eruv in a city and therefore a person is not allowed to carry anything outside. Let’s say a person is sick in bed with a serious life-threatening illness, but there would be no difference if he took medicine immediately or if it was given to him in 10 minutes. Now let’s say the medicine is across the street, so the person attending to the sick person will need to carry the medicine outside, which is breaking a Torah law. Since a few minutes will not make a difference, the law is that it is preferable for two people to carry the medicine together than for one person to carry the medicine. This is because when two people carry the medicine together, they are breaking a Rabbinic commandment instead of a Torah commandment. Breaking a Rabbinic commandment is also very serious, but it is not as serious as breaking a Torah commandment. (I must emphasize again – if the person is in a serious situation and waiting a second longer can cause serious harm, then the attendant immediately get the medicine himself. Also, if there is no one else around, the attendant should not wait for someone else to come (unless they can come immediately). It is more important to break the Torah law and save the person’s life!)

I was bothered with the following question: if I am the attendant, if I get the medicine myself, I break a Torah law. But if I ask someone else to carry it with me, I am now only breaking a Rabbinic law (so it is better for me), but I am now making someone else break a Rabbinic law who originally did not break any law. How can I do that to someone else? So, of course, I asked my Rav who gave an interesting answer. Breaking a Torah law is so serious that it is preferable for someone to break a Rabbinic law to help someone avoid breaking a Torah law.

The reason I am sharing this thought with you is not to have people break laws. It is to show that a person learns Halacha, he learns what is more important. From the passage of the Sota, we see how important Shalom Bayis is. From the laws of Shabbos, we see how serious is the transgression of a Torah law. We also see how important it is to save a person’s life because that is even more important than the Torah law.

When a person learns Halacha, his eyes open up to a whole new world.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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