לזכות ידי"נ ר' שמחה דן בן הדסה לאה לברכה והצלחה בכל מעשי ידיו!!
The Gemara [Pesachim 25b] says that murder is יהרג ואל יעבור, meaning that if given the choice to either kill another person or to be killed, one must allow oneself to be killed. The logic is מאי חזית דדמא דידך סומק טפי - who says that your blood is redder - maybe the other guy's blood is redder [and having the blood checked in a laboratory for redness level will not work. Mussar: You NEVER KNOW who is greater and more valued in the eyes of Hashem. This is reflected הלכה למעשה here. Even if the threatened party is a great Tzadik and the potential victim a simpleton, the Talmid Chochom must give his life because of מאי חזית. WOW!]. We can't allow you to actively kill another human being in the absence of a Divine command to do so - even if it imperils you.
However, Tosfos [ד"ה אף] say that this applies only if the Goy tells the Jew to actively kill the other person. But if the Goy says "You either let me throw you on the baby and crush it or I will kill you" he may allow himself to be used passively as a human weapon to kill the baby and need not give up his life. When he is not active we use converse logic "מאי חזית דדמא דידיה סומק טפי" - who says that HIS blood is more red, maybe yours is and you deserve to live. [There is a Rav Chaim here that is served to every Yeshiva Bochur with breakfast - maybe we will get to it].
The Ohr Gadol [sounds like a sefer of Rav Kook ztz"l but it wasn't] in Yesodei Ha-Torah 5-2 klers [a word in Afrikaans that I can't define] whether if in such an instance he is considered a murderer but since he is passive, שב ואל תעשה, we allow him to save his life or maybe he is not considered a murderer at all but like a stone in the hand of the murderer.
The Ohr Gadol asked: If we adopt the former position, how do we allow him to kill someone just because he is שב ואל תעשה? Passive shmassive - he is a murderer, a killer, an OJ Simpson! [Why would someone name their child after Orange Juice? And why not "TJ" - Tomato Juice?] He concludes that indeed he is a murderer [passive OJ] but being passive makes the sin less severe and thus not mandating that he sacrifice his own life.
According to this, said Rav Avraham Genechovski ztz"l, if there are two people caught in a dark alley on 133rd and Broadway with a bunch of REALLY SCARY DUDES who want blood, one a Kohen and one a Yisrael and there is a car available for getaway that has room for only one of them and this car has a כזית of a dead body inside, the kohen may still save himself. Since the sin of טומאת מת is relatively not severe [in comparison to the value of his life] he may transgress that small sin to save himself and we don't say that since ANYWAY one Jew is going to die, let the one who can save himself without an aveirah do so. Since we don't know whose blood is redder, the fact that one can save himself w/o an aveirah should tip the scales and we will assume that his blood is redder. Says the Ohr Gadol: NO! A small aveirah is not enough to tip the scales and thus one can even passively kill in order to save oneself.
Rav Chatzkel Abramsky similarly paskened that if a doctor is told about two sick people he can save on Shabbos, one would require a car ride and the other not, the doctor may choose whom to save and he need not take into account the "חילול שבת" involved. Since his life is at stake, the aveirah is waived and he has equal standing with the other person whose saving wouldn't necessitate driving. Same principle - an aveirah that is smaller than one's life is disregarded.
The Chazon Ish offers another answer why passively murdering the baby is permitted: If he objects and they kill him instead then he will ALSO be murdering ..... himself. In such a case the murder would be more active [because it came about as a result of his opposition] and therefore worse. So better remain completely passive and let them throw him on the baby.
The Chazon Ish offers another answer why passively murdering the baby is permitted: If he objects and they kill him instead then he will ALSO be murdering ..... himself. In such a case the murder would be more active [because it came about as a result of his opposition] and therefore worse. So better remain completely passive and let them throw him on the baby.
