122 Selected Reform Responsa

which are in violation of Sabbath laws. The important and the direct law in this case is the law of pikuah nefesh, direct danger to life from accident, fire, violence. The law, as stated in the Talmud (Yoma 84b), and as codified in the Shulhan Arukh 329:1, 2, is clear and forthright. It is as follows:“All danger to life sets aside the Sabbath , and whoever is most active[in violating the Sabbath to save life], he is most praiseworthy.” Mugging is clearly a source of danger to life, and if a life can be saved by carrying money, which is based only on the laws of muktsa, then certainly one is to be praised who can save a life by this violation.

Of course, it can be argued that we do not know whether the man might be mugged at all, or if mugged, whether or not the mugger would kill him. However, the law is also clear that when there is such danger of violence to life, we do not stop to count the rrobabilities. Thus, for example, if a wall falls, and if we think that someone is buried under it, but we really do not know whether or not a person is there under the ruins, though we sus­pect that he may be, or we do not know whether he is already dead or perhaps still alive, we must simply take for granted that there is danger of accidental death, and we dig into the ruined heap on the Sabbath (Orah Hayyim 329:2). This mugging situa­tion is so frequent, especially in certain neighborhoods, that we may not stop to count the probabilities. We assume that the dan­ger is present; and just as we are in duty bound to violate the Sabbath to save an endangered life, so the endangered person is equally in duty bound to save his own.

Maimonides , in his discussion of saving life on the Sabbath , cites the verse in Leviticus 18:5:“My statutes and ordinances which a man should do and live by”(Yad, Shabbat 2:3). To this he adds the talmudic amplification:“live by but not die by.” This amplification of the biblical verse is derived from the Talmud (Yoma 85b) where, in the discussion of saving a man from danger, one scholar says:“Violate one Sabbath in his behalf that he may live to observe many Sabbaths.” Clearly, then, it is a man’s duty to save the lives of others regardless of whether the action involves violating the Sabbath . In fact, the law is that if we see a man attacked on the Sabbath , we may even prepare or use weapons to defend him, even if such actions are forbidden on the Sabbath (Yad, Hil. Shabbat 2:24). Obviously, too, just as a man is in duty bound to violate the Sabbath in order to save others, so a man is clearly in duty bound to save himself if he can. If, for