Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Observance, Marriage, Women in Judaism (4/12) Previous Document: Question 7.9: What is an Eruv? Next Document: Question 7.11: What Medical Procedures May Be Performed on Shabbat? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge Answer: Yes, you can. Putting out a fire on Shabbos is just one example of a more general rule. With rare exception, saving a life takes precedence over any prohibition. Among the exceptions: murder, idolatry, certain sexual sins, and war in certain cases. In other words, if given the choice between murdering another or getting killed, one must choose to get killed. In addition, one is permitted, but not obligated, to risk one's life to perform any other observance that was banned by Antisemites for the purpose of suppressing Judaism. The textual origin for the general rule is at Deut 4:5: "and you shall guard well your lives." In context it means something totally different, but that's where the derash begins. Since allowing a fire to spread to the rest of the house is a major threat to both the people in the house as well as people in neighboring houses, one is OBLIGATED to put the fire out on Shabbat. User Contributions:Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Observance, Marriage, Women in Judaism (4/12) Previous Document: Question 7.9: What is an Eruv? Next Document: Question 7.11: What Medical Procedures May Be Performed on Shabbat? Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: SCJ FAQ Maintainer <maintainer@scjfaq.org>
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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