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a consequence of the obligation to save a fellow Jew’s life, such that
when there is no obligation to save him desecrating Shabbos will be
forbidden. This argument is particularly relevant according to Rabbi
Akiva’s view (Yoma 85) that the allowance to desecrate Shabbos for
piku’ach nefesh [danger to life] is derived from the halachah that a
kohen is allowed to set aside the sacrificial service to go and testify in
beis din in order to save a life; all the more so then should it be per-
mitted to set aside Shabbos [which itself is set aside by the sacrificial
service] in order to save life. It’s therefore possible that Shabbos can
only be desecrated for a life that it is a mitzvah to save but not for a
life that there is no mitzvah to save.

It appears that it is permitted to desecrate Shabbos to save them.
Proof for this can be adduced from the Ramban’s ruling that even if
a fetus is less than forty days old, if it is likely to be endangered by
its mother’s fasting on Yom Kippur she is allowed to eat in order to
save its life, even though it‘s possible that the mitzvah “Do not stand
idly by the [spilled] blood of your colleague” does not apply to such
a fetus [i.e. there is no mitzvah to save it]. See the Ramban’s Toras
Ha’adam (Shaar Hameichush, Inyan Haskanah, quoted in the Biur
Halachah 330, s.v. o safek) who writes this. Thus, even when there
is no obligation to save a life, it is nevertheless permitted to violate
Torah prohibitions in order to save it.2 The reason for this is that the
halachah that piku’ach nefesh sets aside the mitzvos of the Torah is
learned from the passuk “Observe My laws...that a person shall do
them and live by them” (Vayikra 18:5), from which Chazal infer, “and
not die by them” (Yoma 85b). This allowance to set aside mitzvos in
order to preserve life is unconnected to the obligation to save life,
which is learned from “Restore it to him” [i.e. his health or his life].

2. Earlier, in siman 234, we mention my father-in-law’s citing this Biur Halachah
as proof that the mitzvah “Do not stand idly by the [spilled] blood of your col-
league” applies even to a fetus; according to this our proof from the Ramban
can be pushed off. It nonetheless appears that he obligation to save life and the
allowance to desecrate Shabbos in order to save life are two separate issues, as
we have explained earlier at length, in siman 164.

Shabbos Desecration to Save a Sinner’s Life 2 271