לזכות מיכה חיים בן שרה
עמיחי ישראל בן לאה
הרב אברהם יוסף בן ר' משה חיים
The Rosh cites the Maharam Of Rottenberg that the din of פיקוח נפש for all mitzvos is דחויה [the mitzva is pushed away], while for Shabbos it is הותרה [completely permitted and Shabbos is not pushed away]. This is built ["geboit" in French] on the limmud that פיקוח נפש is דוחה שבת from the pasuk of קדש היא לכם on which Chazal expound [Yoma 82b] "שבת מסורה בידכם ואין אתם מסורים בידה" - Shabbos is given over into your hand and you are not given into her hand. A second opinion is that we derive this principle from "וחי בהם - "ולא שימות בהם. On the first opinion there is a comment, that if the source is קדש היא לכם that is not enough to permit פיקוח נפש even in a case of ספק. If the source is וחי בהם then we can permit פיקוח נפש even in a case of ספק for וחי בהם implies that we must be absolutely certain that he will live.
On this the Maharil Diskin explained that the first opinion of קדש היא לכם was not completely rejected. In a case of definite פיקוח נפש the rule of קדש היא לכם - שהיא נמסרת בידכם ואין אתם נמסרים בידה still applies. Therefore, we can derive from here that שבת is הותרה. Shabbos is given over into your hand!! Unlike other mitzvos [where the source is וחי בהם] and there is no source that they are הותרה - so they are merely דחויה.
Two questions:
1] Why is it that there is a distinction between Shabbos and other mitzvos?
2] How do we know that מסורה בידכם applies only to saving a life and not to other things like יסורים?
First we will say the sentence and then we will expand. In the whole Torah there is a contradiction between "קדוש" and "לכם". Hekdesh is forbidden לכם. Only on Shabbos there is a situation of "קדש היא לכם" - Kodesh is לכם! Therefore פיקוח נפש on Shabbos is הותרה completely and not only דחויה because its קדושה is לכם.
The explanation is as follows: It is known that there is no שכר מצוה in this world. היום לעשותם ומחר לקבל שכרם. Today we work - tomorrow we get paid. But there is one mitzva for which it is exceedingly clear that there is going to be no reward in this world. This mitzva is קידוש השם and יהרג ואל יעבור. For in this case he is giving his life and this world.
On the other hand, there is one mitzva where we can see that there are echoes of reward in this world. Shabbos. Or Shabbat. [Does that count for two?]. מעין עולם הבא ויום שכולו שבת. The reward in this world is tasting the next world. We are getting tomorrow's reward today [ki-dugmas "I will gladly pay you on Tuesday for a hamburger today - all cholesterol aside"]. Therefore on the day that the reward is today, it can't be that the מציאות of שבת will be "pushed away" [דחייה] in order to save our lives. This is the day of reward, so how can we push it away - even for פיקוח נפש??!!
It MUST therefore be that Shabbos is הותרה!! So the מציאות of Shabbos remains intact and permits us to do melacha and is not pushed away, because she is נמסרת בידכם. THAT is the עולם השכר.
[עפ"י דברי מרן ראש הישיבה זצ"ל]
