Zealotry for Life – Parshat Acharei Mot 2024

Though this may sound strange, COVID-19 has been on my mind recently. I look at photos and videos of the anti-Israel protesters on college campuses and the one thing they almost all have in common is that not only are they wearing masks, but they are doing so outdoors. Seeing images of masses of people shouting while covering their faces certainly recalls the first half of 2020, when schools and shuls were shuttered at the same time that there was massive civil unrest. There were fierce debates within the Jewish community about the masking and shul closures, which centered around not only the truth about the danger posed by COVID, which I maintain was and still is real, especially if you are not vaccinated.

It also involved the balancing of competing values. On the one hand, we are halachically permitted to take a certain amount of risk to do even optional tasks, like driving cars or undergoing elective surgery. On the other hand, there is a פסוק we read in the תורה this morning, which פוסקים and rabbinic organizations all over the world invoked throughout the pandemic, which puts a prime value on human life.

וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֤ם אֶת־חֻקֹּתַי֙ וְאֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַ֔י אֲשֶׁ֨ר יַעֲשֶׂ֥ה אֹתָ֛ם הָאָדָ֖ם וָחַ֣י בָּהֶ֑ם אֲנִ֖י ה׳׃

You shall keep My laws and My statutes, such that a man will perform them and live by them: I am Hashem.

The notion of וחי בהם is not a throwaway line – it is repeated many times in ספר יחזקאל in a chapter that Sephardic custom assigns as the הפטרה for this morning. There, the נביא, quoting the רבש״ע, explains that the Jewish People’s failure to live by these laws and keep שבת led to wandering the מדבר:

וַיַּמְרוּ־בִי הַבָּנִים בְּחֻקּוֹתַי לֹא־הָלָכוּ וְאֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַי לֹא־שָׁמְרוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת אוֹתָם אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה אוֹתָם הָאָדָם וָחַי בָּהֶם אֶת־שַׁבְּתוֹתַי חִלֵּלוּ וָאֹמַר לִשְׁפֹּךְ חֲמָתִי עֲלֵיהֶם לְכַלּוֹת אַפִּי בָּם בַּמִּדְבָּר׃

But the children rebelled against Me: they did not follow My laws and did not faithfully observe My statutes, by which a man shall perform them and live by them; and they profaned My sabbaths. I decided to pour out My wrath upon them, to vent all My anger upon them, in the Wilderness.

Apparently, this phrase of “אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה אֹתָם הָאָדָם וָחַי בָּהֶם” is critical to our understanding of what is expected of us, of the underlying values of תורה observance. What does it mean?

The גמרא in מסכת יומא cites a conversation among some of the greatest rabbis of the Tannaitic period, including רבי עקיבא and רבי ישמעאל and רבי אלעזר בן עזריה, about a הלכה that they took for granted as true but did not have one definitive source. How do we know that you can violate שבת when a life is in danger? Various answers are proposed but רבא affirms that the best answer was given by רב יהודה in the name of שמואל:

וחי בהם ולא שימות בהם

Live by them but not die by them

If performing the מצוות is related to וחי בהם, that must mean ולא ימות בהם, that performance of these מצוות must not require one to sacrifice their life and die to do them successfully. Rav Soloveitchik, in his book Halakhic Man, records that his grandfather took this principle so seriously that he ruled against earlier authorities and said that if someone is ill to the point where their life is at risk, you feed them full meals on יום כיפור and never resort to eating שיעורים. He instructed the Rav’s father to rule this way in his rabbinic positions and to pass it on, even though it was a big חידוש.

When the Rav was a young, boy he was very sick one Shabbos. Reb Chaim asked the doctor if a lamp would help his examination. When the doctor indicated in the affirmative, he instructed the Rav’s father, Rav Moshe, to light the lamp but he hesitated. Reb Chaim explained that in lighting the lamp, he was not being lenient about שבת but rather strict about וחי בהם.

The גמרא in סנהדרין clarifies that there are exceptions, however: One must be willing to be killed rather than commit murder, adultery, and idolatry, violate הלכה publicly, or violate any הלכה during a time of persecution of Jews, שעת השמד. In fact, the גמרא in עבודה זרה says that a man named רבי אלעזר בן דמה was bitten by a venomous snake and was about to die when an early Christian who was an expert at healing snake bites arrived on the scene. רבי ישמעאל argued that רבי אלעזר בן דמה had no right to benefit from the religious Christian’s incantation and before רבי אלעזר could respond, he died and was later eulogized by רבי ישמעאל for his sacrifice on behalf of הלכה. However, the גמרא points out that as רבי אלעזר בן דמה was dying, he seemed to disagree with רבי ישמעאל, which the גמרא assumed was based on the פסוק of וחי בהם.

This negotiation of Jewish values between תורה observance and life is of obvious relevance to our observance of the upcoming יוםs. An entire book of תשובות called תשובות ממעקים was written by Rabbi Ephraim Oshry about the heart-wrenching questions he was asked during the שואה about eating חמץ on פסח or working on שבת to survive. We also commemorate the millions of Jews who died על קידוש ה׳, who sometimes risked or gave their lives to uphold their Jewish identities and religious practices. יום הזיכרון and יום העצמאות, Israel’s Memorial and Independence Days, also commemorate the sacrifices that Israeli soldiers make, giving up their lives for our right to live safely in ארץ ישראל and the sacrifices of soldiers who serve on שבת or חג to save lives. October 7, which makes these days even more poignant and difficult this year, was both יום טוב and שבת and hundreds of observant Israelis, as soon as they understood what was going on, did not hesitate to follow וחי בהם and rush to confront the Hamas onslaught and help the survivors.

But this understanding of וחי בהם, that the value of life usually outweighs the observance of מצוות, while certainly core to הלכה, is not the only interpretation. The מדרש in the ספרא explains that וחי בהם is not an instruction but rather a consequence – that if one observes the מצוות, they will live. If taken literally, this would pose a serious theological problem. The גמרא in חולין says a man once climbed a ladder to take eggs from a bird nest and shooed away the mother bird, as the תורה says to do. However, on the way down, he still lost his balance, fell and died. Says the גמרא, it may have been this event that led אלישע בן אבויה, a prominent rabbi from the Mishnaic period, to become a heretic. He was bothered by theodicy: If the תורה promises life to those who observe its laws, why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper? The גמרא there, and the ספרא, both explain that “life” as a reward must therefore not refer to a promise of health and long life in this world, but rather to reward in עולם הבא, in the World to Come.

רמב״ן says that וחי בהם does not refer to reward per se but to the natural consequence for society if they observe the מצוות, especially the משפטים, the laws governing interactions between people:

ישוב המדינות ושלום האדם ושלא יזיק איש את רעהו ולא ימיתנו

Settlement of the countries, peace among people and the absence of harm or abuse between one person and his fellow

Ironically, Rav Moshe Alshich interprets וחי בהם to mean exactly the opposite of the ספרא and רמב״ן. He says that וחי בהם is not the ideal result of observing the מצוות, as that is like על מנת לקבל פרס, serving on the condition of reward, for an ulterior motive. Rather, this פסוק is telling us that if one does serve with that in mind, they should know וחי בהם, that the reward will be given. However, Rav Alshich notes that the previous פסוק is almost identical except that it doesn’t mention וחי בהם and says אני ה׳ אלקיכם, not just אני ה׳.

אֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַי תַּעֲשׂוּ וְאֶת־חֻקֹּתַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ לָלֶכֶת בָּהֶם אֲנִי ה׳ אֱלֹקֵיכֶם׃

My rules alone shall you observe, and faithfully follow My laws: I am Hashem your G-d.

Maybe the best way to observe the מצוות is without thinking about וחי בהם, without considering the reward, only that ה׳ is אלקינו, our G-d.

The חידושי הרי״ם, the first Gerrer Rebbe, read this verse a third way. Rather than a promise of reward or a value competing with מצוות, he says that וחי בהם is a description of the mode in which the מצוות should be observed:

שעיקר חיות האדם יהי’ רק בתורה ומצות

The essence of a person’s life should be תורה and מצוות

Rav Amital explains that this is true in several ways. First, it has to do with the emotional experience of performing the מצוות, that they should be done with liveliness, with a sense that they are something that causes us joy, not as a pain or a burden. As the נצי״ב writes:

שיהיה נפשו מתענג בהרגש רוחני בהם

His soul should enjoy a spiritual emotion from them

Second, says Rav Amital, we must observe מצוות with the awareness that we are human beings, flawed living things, and not automatons or robots. We are not expected to sublimate our feelings and pretend we don’t feel anger, joy, or sadness.

Both of these aspects of מצווה observance came to the fore just over a week ago, during the סדר this year. For many Jews, especially the hostage families, it was almost impossible to keep the מצוות in any kind of normal way. With family members or friends missing from the table, amid a war and a worldwide rise in antisemitism, who could easily raise their glass and say לפיכך אנחנו חייבים להודות ולהלל, therefore we must give thanks and praise for G-d’s salvation, without a second thought? And yet, we do it anyway, not without emotion, but with those emotions becoming part of the מצווה experience.

Finally, says Rav Amital, וחי בהם also means that the תורה is supposed to be the main purpose and focus of our lives. It is not something that we do in our free time, one aspect of our identity among many. We can’t just say, “I’m a man, a Trekkie, a Red Sox fan, and a Jew.” Unlike sports or science fiction fandom, the תורה is the prism through which we perceive the world, something so core to who we are that it is inseparable from any part of our lives, something we will never abandon. So וחי בהם can be a halachic principle that limits when we observe מצוות, it can be a reward, it can be a mode of תורה observance.

But perhaps the most powerful formulation of what וחי בהם comes from the רמב״ם and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. The רמב״ם writes that if someone is very sick and שבת must be violated on their behalf, it should be done by a great תורה scholar, not a non-Jew or child, and it should be done immediately without hesitation. This is because, he says, וחי בהם teaches us that:

שֶׁאֵין מִשְׁפְּטֵי הַתּוֹרָה נְקָמָה בָּעוֹלָם אֶלָּא רַחֲמִים וְחֶסֶד וְשָׁלוֹם בָּעוֹלָם.

That the laws of the תורה do not bring revenge to the world but rather compassion, kindness, and peace to the world.

Shortly after publishing his book Not in G-d’s Name against religious extremism and violence, when Sivan Rahav-Meir asked Rabbi Sacks about וחי בהם. He responded by explaining that it’s not that Judaism requires us to be any less zealous than terrorists. Rather, וחי בהם, and our experience with hatred and violence perpetrated against us, teach us to be “zealots for life and love…to be sensitive to others…this is our zealousness.”