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fire on Shabbos cannot be vengeance, because even if fire breaks out
in the home of a tzaddik who is suffering on account of the sins of
his generation – as it is written, “He is stricken on account of our
sins,” (Yeshayahu 53:5) as Rashi explains in Sanhedrin (98a) – it is still
forbidden to extinguish it on Shabbos because the Torah commands
us that fire may not be put out in order to save property. We might
however have thought that if an evildoer is ill on Shabbos, since
Hakadosh baruch Hu has smitten him, we ought not to save him by
desecrating Shabbos for an evildoer, despite the Torah writing “And
a person shall live by them.” The Rambam rejects this idea by writing
4 that the Torah’s laws are not a means of exacting vengeance in the
world.

According to the Even Ha’ezel’s rationale we can propose an addi-
tional reason why it is forbidden to protect a murderer. As we have
seen, were it not for the passuk “And he shall surely be healed,” a phy-
sician would be forbidden to treat the sick, for if Hashem yisbarach
has smitten a person it is forbidden for someone to come along and
heal him. The Torah however reveals to us that a physician is licensed
to heal and that it is even a mitzvah for him to do so. However, all this
applies to a type of danger – such as illness – that befalls a person
through Heaven’s agency but when a king apprehends evildoers and
wants to punish them for the betterment of society, since the Torah
instructs kings to do just that, as it says “A king maintains [law and
order in] his country through judgment,” (Mishlei 29:4) we revert to
the position that if Hakadosh baruch Hu has smitten him [i.e. made
him liable for the king’s punishment], we should not save him.

It appears that if a person violates a Torah prohibition in order
to save a murderer from the king’s clutches, arguing that piku’ach
nefesh sets aside all Torah laws, he will be punished for the sin he has
committed. We are not permitted to save him and are certainly not
allowed to sin in order to help him escape punishment. This is evi-
dent from the aforementioned comments of the Yaavetz. [However,
his ruling that even if the murderer has repented it is forbidden to
save him from the king’s hand, needs further reflection.]

In Bava Metzia (83b) it is related that Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Shi-

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