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to his own life in having put himself in a position where he can be
killed… [and even if it were], that would not apply here in particular,
where she would be sacrificing her life with the Torah’s license.” [At
any rate] this [i.e. the Maharil’s dismissal of the would-be-robber’s
negligence with his own life as being the reason that Shabbos is not
desecrated to save him] implies that even when an individual bears
responsibility for being negligent with his life, we must still desecrate
Shabbos in order to prevent his suicide. According to this, in the case
of the bank clerk too we would be obligated to save him, even when
doing so involves sinning.

Apparently though even if we decide that we are obligated to
desecrate Shabbos in order to prevent a suicide, logic dictates that
this extends only to setting aside Torah prohibitions that stand in the
way of the rescue however the bank management are clearly under no
obligation to lose their money in order to save the prospective suicide.
This is for the very same reason that there is no obligation to donate
tzeddakah towards preventing someone from starving when he has
assets of his own but because of his miserliness does not want to sup-
port himself and only wants to receive from others – this is evident
from maseches Kesubos (67b) and from the Rambam (Hilchos Matnos
Aniyim 7:9). This is because we are only obligated to help a colleague
when he is unable to help himself but not if he could help himself
but refuses to do so. The bank management is therefore under no
obligation to lose their money when the clerk himself could decide to
refrain from committing suicide and stay alive.

The argument can be made though that the two situations differ,
for a person who wants to take his own life out of shame is an annus,
because embarrassment is extremely difficult to bear and there are
situations where a person is unable to bear the distress and is unable
to choose to go on living. We encounter such a situation in maseches
Avodah Zarah (18b): Bruriah, the wife of Rabbi Meir and daughter of
Rabbi Chananiah ben Tradyon, who was greatly praised by the Sages,
(see Pesachim 62b) nevertheless killed herself when it became publicly
known that she had almost been seduced. If such a great woman was
unable to bear her shame it is possible that the bank clerk in our case

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