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ten, ‘…”which a person shall do and live by them [i.e. the mitzvos]” 13
(Vayikra 18:5) – and not die by them,’ from which we learn that the
Torah’s laws are not [to visit] vengeance upon the world but [to be-
stow] mercy, kindness and peace upon the world.” At first glance the
Rambam’s comments are unintelligible – why would we think that
observing Shabbos is “vengeance”?

The Even Ha’ezel explains this nicely. He writes: “We find in Bava
Kama (85a) ‘“And he shall surely be healed” (Shemos 21:19) — this
teaches us that a physician has Divine license to heal and that we do
not say, “The Merciful One has smitten him, shall he [i.e. the physi-
cian] heal him?!”’ Accordingly [i.e. while that might hold true during
the week, if a person is sick on Shabbos] the illness may indeed be a
punishment and one could argue that desecrating Shabbos to heal
him should be forbidden; this would mean that Shabbos was helping
inflict the punishment that Hashem visited upon this person because
of his sins. In order to counter this idea the Rambam says that we
learn from this [i.e. the fact that the mitzvos are set aside in order to
save life] that the Torah’s laws cannot possibly be regarded as assisting
in inflicting punishment, even if the person deserves it. “Vengeance”
here means punishment, as he [the Rambam] writes in the eighth
chapter of Hilchos Teshuvah.”

Now an objection to this can apparently be raised, in view of the
gemara in Shabbos (119b) which says, “Rav Yehudah said… ‘Fire only
usually breaks out in a place where there is Shabbos desecration, as
it is written “And if you will not listen to me to sanctify the Shabbos
day… I will kindle a fire at its gates and it will consume the palaces
of Yerushalayim and it will not be extinguished.” (Yirmiyahu 17: 27)’
What does ‘it will not be extinguished’ mean [i.e. why should a fire
not be put out]? Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak said, ‘This refers to a
time when people are not present to extinguish it.’” Rashi explains
that this refers to Shabbos. We thus see that Hakadosh baruch Hu
uses Shabbos as a means of punishing Shabbos desecrators, since the
prohibition of extinguishing on Shabbos prevents them from extin-
guishing the fire.

The answer can be given that the prohibition of extinguishing a

400 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein