Activities Prohibited On Shabbat - Saving of Human Life

Saving of Human Life

For more details on this topic, see pikuach nefesh.

In the event that a human life is in danger, a Jew is not only allowed, but required, to violate any Shabbat law that stands in the way of saving that person. The concept of life being in danger is interpreted broadly: for example, it is mandated that one violate Shabbat to take a woman in active labor to a hospital.

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Famous quotes containing the words saving, human and/or life:

    A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

    All things by human laws created change:
    Lands to each other known, in time grow strange:
    Nations in course of many years put on
    A various face; but heaven wears always one.
    Marcus Manilius (10 B.C.–A.D. 30)

    This form, this face, this life
    Living to live in a world of time beyond me; let me
    Resign my life for this life, my speech for that unspoken,
    The awakened, lips parted, the hope, the new ships.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)