Lessons Learned from Chur

Therefore, Aharon HaKohen decided to become involved in the sin of the Golden Calf, rather than letting Kal Yisrael suffer destruction.

HaRav Gavriel Zev Margoliyos (1847-1935) noted that Aharon’s logic seems to contradict a Gemara in Shabbos. The Gemara in Shabbos (4a) presents a scenario where someone on Shabbos unintentionally placed dough in an oven to bake. Another person, upon smelling the aroma, realizes the situation. While removing the raw dough from the oven could prevent the prohibited act of baking on Shabbos, doing so on Shabbos itself constitutes a rabbinical prohibition. Should someone remove the bread from the oven and violate a rabbinic prohibition to save another individual from a Torah prohibition? The Gemara concludes that one may not. As the Gemara notes, “Do we tell a person to sin to help someone else?”

How was Aharon allowed to fashion a graven image to help Klal Yisrael? Rav Margoliyos said the answer may be found in Tosfos. Tosfos suggests that for a great mitzvah, one can perform a minor sin. Saving Klal Yisrael would justify Aharon HaKohen violating a Torah prohibition.

The Beis Yosef (O.C. 306) extrapolates from this Tosfos that if someone was informed on Shabbos that his daughter had been kidnapped by a priest to raise her as a gentile, one may even violate Biblical prohibitions of Shabbos to rescue her. This is true even if one is assured beyond the shadow of a doubt that his daughter is not in any physical danger. Moreover, we physically compel the father to rescue his daughter. The Mishnah Berurah points out that even a non-relative may violate the Shabbos to save the daughter, although only a relative is coerced. The logic of this halacha is that one may violate one Shabbos to ensure that his daughter does not violate many Shabbosos by living her life as a gentile.

The difficulty, though, is regarding a Jewish individual who willingly approached a priest to forsake his religion. Can one violate Shabbos to rescue him? (Once again, this question is based on a theoretical assumption that there is absolutely no chance of him being physically harmed.)

The answer depends on the Tosfos above. Why do we not remove the bread from the oven before it bakes to save the forgetful baker from violating a Biblical Shabbos prohibition? If we don’t help him because he was negligent, this individual, too, was negligent by approaching the priest in the first place. If, however, we don’t help the absentminded baker because we are not helping him perform a mitzvah rabbah, here we could potentially help a person live his entire life as a Jew, which is undoubtedly a mitzvah rabbah! Since it is a matter of doubt, we are stringent and only violate Shabbos when both conditions are met: (a) the individual was not negligent, and (b) we are helping him perform a mitzvah rabbah. However, the Elya Rabbah says that one may violate a rabbinic prohibition for the spiritual rescue of even a negligent individual.

My uncle, HaRav Binyamin Samson, z”l, passed away last week. I am reprinting the following story, which has already graced these pages as it is connected to the above topic.

Sheppard Air Force Base, located in Wichita Falls, Texas, was home to a Strategic Air Command Operational Wing of B-52 bombers in the 1960s and the 494th Bomb Wing until 1965. At its peak, the base had over 21,000 people, including many Jewish servicemen.

Rabbi Benjamin Samson, z”l, a Cedarhurst resident, received his semicha from Yeshiva University and was issued orders on July 28, 1960, to become a chaplain and First Lieutenant at Sheppard Air Force Base. He served the Jewish personnel by holding services and teaching classes, eventually attaining the rank of captain before leaving the base.

He was given secret clearance to attend to the airmen of the Strategic Air Command properly. On Sukkos, he built a sukkah on the base; one of the Jewish servicemen was an engineer who helped design it. The children of the Jewish servicemen who were stationed at the base were able to receive a more formal Jewish education at the Hebrew School of the local community.

One Shabbos afternoon, Chaplain First Lieutenant Benjamin Samson was trying to relax at his home on the base, but his phone was ringing incessantly. He didn’t answer it, because it was Shabbos. However, the persistent ringing was soon accompanied by a knock at the door.

A visitor, a high-ranking officer, stood on the doorstep. He explained that there was an urgent phone call for the chaplain and asked if he would be willing to answer it, given the circumstances. Rabbi Samson, understanding that there was an emergency, agreed to take the call.

With a sense of trepidation and curiosity about the nature of this call, he picked up the phone. On the other end of the line was a woman from Baltimore, her voice choked with sobs. It was the heart-wrenching sound of a Jewish mother, distraught and desperate.

“My son is stationed at the base,” she cried. “He told me that he will be baptized after Shabbos.”

The news hit Rabbi Samson like a thunderbolt. This decision had profound implications, representing a significant shift in the young man’s religious identity.

The chaplain promptly contacted the woman’s son, Airman Third Class Richard, and requested his presence. As requests from higher-ranking officers are typically obeyed, Richard arrived accompanied by his non-Jewish friend. Richard, who was young, impressionable, and lonely, was in need of a friend. His friend, a devout gentile, had made it his mission to convert as many personnel on the base as possible.

Rabbi Samson requested that the gentile friend remain outside while he spoke with Richard. He attempted to dissuade Richard from proceeding with the baptism ceremony by suggesting that such a significant life decision should be made at home, after leaving the service. He further questioned Richard’s knowledge of Judaism. When Richard admitted he didn’t know much about Judaism, Rabbi Samson advised him to learn more about the religion he was leaving before giving it up. Richard agreed and postponed the ceremony for two weeks, during which time he began studying Judaism with the chaplain.

During one of their learning sessions, Rabbi Samson broached a sensitive topic with Richard. He expressed his belief that it was time for Richard to discontinue his attendance at church services. Richard’s response was surprisingly candid, “I was wondering when you were going to ask me to stop.”

And stop, he did. The planned conversion ceremony was put on hold indefinitely. Freed from the constraints of his alternative religious practice, Richard’s spiritual growth accelerated exponentially. He immersed himself in the study and practice of Judaism, developing a deep and abiding commitment to Yiddishkeit. His bond with Chaplain Samson deepened as well, their relationship evolving into a close personal friendship.

As a postscript, was the mother allowed to call Rabbi Samson on Shabbos to save her son from being baptized? HaRav Dovid Feinstein, zt”l, concurred that the mother’s decision was correct. He further questioned whether someone with a minimal Jewish background who was put in the same place as a quasi-missionary can be deemed negligent. Perhaps he can be considered someone who was ignorant since birth, a tinok shenishba. If that were true, then maybe even a d’Oraysa could be violated. However, Rav Dovid continued that this discussion is primarily academic. He said that if anyone asked him a similar question, he would instruct the individual not to violate Shabbos because it is not clear that violating the Shabbos will help the situation (as opposed to rescuing a child from a monastery, which will help). Hindsight being what it is, it is clear that this mother’s phone call was effective and, therefore, permitted.