[Avodah] Holy Smokes

[Ben Bradley via Avodah]

'Note found interesting was that R' Yosef Greenwald assumes that
venishmartem me'od lenafshoseikhem isn't about preserving life, but
preserving one's ability to pull the ol mitzvos. (That sounds weird,
but an animal "pulls a yoke", no?) Which includes preserving life. And
thus includes intoxication and other mind- or mood-altering chemicals
that could hamper one's ability to function.'

The odd thing about v'nishmartem me'od l'nafshoseichem is that it's a 'blank pasuk'. Ie despite sounding like a tzivui which we'd need Chazal to define more precisely it is in fact not brought anywhere in Chazal at all. Not in halacha nor aggadeta. Rishonim don't say much if anything about it either as far as I recall.
So that leaves us fairly free to guess what it means, I suppose. I'd assumed it means preserving health, inasmuch as nefesh usually refers to life force, and we wouldn't need it to refer to preserving life itself, since that's covered by a) prohibition of suicide and b) al taamod al dam reyecha.
And preserving health would presumably be in order to keep mitzvos the better, no?

And I think an animal bears a yoke and pulls a plough. Lashon Hakodesh is always 'nosei ol'. Which corresponds better to bear than pull. So we carry/bear the ol mitzvos I think.

Ben

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