[Avodah] Violate Shabbat to Save a Jentile

[Michael Makovi]

> > Personally, it seems to me that if we can say that Shabbat was given
> > to us and not us to Shabbat, kal vachomer jentiles were not given to
> > Shabbat (to lose their lives on its account).
>
> Without reference to the, AFAIK, settled halacha that one does save the
> life of a non-Jew on Shabbos, the above kv"ch doesn't work.  IIUC, this
> limud says a Jew doesn't give up his life for Shabbos, so the kol
> v'chomer is that a non-Jew doesn't have to die to avoid violating
> Shabbos.  Which is clearly true: in fact a non-Jew is chayiv misah
> (bidei shamayim, I assume) for keeping Shabbos.  Nothing can be implied
> about whether a Jew should violate Shabbos to save him.
> R' Daniel M. Israel

B'vadai a gentile doesn't have to die to avoid Shabbat. But the
Gemara, AFAIK, uses this limud to prove that Jew A doesn't have to die
because of Jew B keeping Shabbat. Jew B can break Shabbat to save Jew
A, and Jew A doesn't have to die, because Jew A wasn't given to
Shabbat, but rather Shabbat was given to Jew A, and therefore, Jew B
can violate Shabbat.

It seems to me that if so, then all the more so, Gentile A doesn't
have to die by Jew B's shomer Shabbat-ness.

Yes, my logic is very quirky and my kol vachomer is suspect, I'll
admit. But is the Gemara's limud any less quirky? Because Jew A was
not given to Shabbat, this gives permission for Jew B to violate it? I
would think that it would give only permission to Jew A himself.

Mikha'el Makovi