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our teacher, peace be upon him, would dedicate his Second Axiom: Hashem Wants to Give Life to Even
soul to them and pray on their behalf—such as in the Most Wicked Person
the case of the spies, and the like. That is because he
knew that in accordance with the holiness of the people The greatest halachic authorities state that we must desecrate
of Israel and their nobility, they are far from sin, and the Sabbath for any Jew, even someone who is base and very far
it is completely impossible for them to bear the heavy from the Torah: “At this time, one must desecrate the Sabbath for
burden of sin (as above). And in truth, how do they come every dangerously ill person, even if he does not keep the Torah
to sin, heaven forbid? That happens only when a person and mitzvot—even if he publicly violates the Sabbath” (Yalkut
lacks awareness, because “a person does not sin unless a Yosef 329:1). And: “When a person has made a suicide attempt
spirit of foolishness has entered into him” (Sotah 3). And by drinking poison and the like, if he is in danger, we must do
everything possible to save him, and we even desecrate the Sabbath
that is the most pitiful matter of all, and we must for him, although he committed the grave offense of trying to take
have compassion on such a person and give him his own life, which is a severe sin. Even if he protests and cries out
awareness, as in the verse: “Fortunate is the person who that he wants to die, we do not listen to him, because a person’s
gives wisdom to the poor” (Psalms 41:2), because “there life is not his own property, but the property of the Holy One,
is no poor person except one who is poor in awareness” blessed be He.”
(Nedarim 41). We must have compassion upon him and
give him awareness. And the Rambam rules that for the sake of saving someone’s life,
it is a mitzvah for “the great ones of Israel and their sages” (ibid.)
That is the purpose of creation. Hashem created the world to to violate the Sabbath. That means that we tell the Jewish leaders
be inhabited. As the verse states: “Not chaos did He create it; to desecrate the Sabbath. For whom? For a person who violates
to be inhabited did He form it” (Isaiah 45:18). A person who the Sabbath and the entire Torah. And why? Because Hashem’s
does not possess awareness is not called a human being. Thus, a will is that even the most ignoble transgressor should live! Here is
world of people who lack awareness is a desolate ruin. As Rabbi a distinct law that says this explicitly—and there can be no greater
Nachman says: “The world should be inhabited by human beings. proof than that.
The essence of a human being is his awareness. If a person does not
have awareness, he is not part of civilization and he is not termed a Many verses and sources teach clearly and absolutely that Hashem
human being at all. Rather, he is on the level of an animal in human does not desire that a person die but that he do teshuvah. As the
form” (ibid.). verse states: “I do not desire the death of the wicked person, but
rather that the wicked person repent from his path and live” (Ezekiel
33:11). But despite all of these well-known prooftexts, this truth
Give Me Life in Your Ways is unfortunately very much hidden. Therefore, we must remind
ourselves over and over again that it is Hashem’s will to rescue and
When we know that Hashem is truly compassionate, that His save every person. Hashem’s entire will is to rescue even the most
compassion is infinite and it is His will to extend compassion to all wicked person so that he will live, do teshuvah, and serve Hashem.
beings, we can make every spiritual request, which is the purpose
of all creation and of the entire trait of compassion. In accordance
with this, we may understand Moses’ prayer on behalf of the Jews
during the episode of the sin of the spies: “Please forgive the sin