How the Sages Proved That Saving a Life Overrides Shabbat

"You shall keep My sabbaths" (Exodus 31:13). Why is this said? Because Scripture says, "You shall do no manner of work" (Exodus 20:10), I would know only of things forbidden as labor; things forbidden as rest (shevut) from where? Scripture teaches, saying "But you shall keep My sabbaths," to include the things forbidden as rest. It once happened that Rabbi Ishmael, Rabbi Akiva, and Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah were walking on the road, with Levi the Arranger and Rabbi Ishmael the son of Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah walking behind them, and this question was asked: From where do we know that the saving of a life overrides the Sabbath? Rabbi Ishmael would say: Behold, it says, "If a thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him" (Exodus 22:1). It is doubtful whether he came to steal or came to kill. Now is this not an argument from minor to major: if the shedding of blood, which defiles the land and drives away the Divine Presence, overrides the Sabbath, how much more so should the saving of a life override the Sabbath! Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says: If circumcision, which concerns only one of a person's limbs, overrides the Sabbath, how much more so the whole body! They said to him: From the place from which you derived it [comes the objection]: just as there it is certain, so here it must be certain and not doubtful. Rabbi Akiva says: Behold, it says, "You shall take him from My altar to die" (Exodus 21:14). If murder overrides the Temple service, which itself overrides the Sabbath, how much more so should the saving of a life override the Sabbath! Rabbi Yose the Galilean says: Behold, it says "surely [akh]" [a limiting word]: there are sabbaths on which you rest and there are sabbaths on which you do not rest. And Rabbi Shimon ben Menasya says: Behold, it says, "You shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you" (Exodus 31:14): the Sabbath is handed over to you, and you are not handed over to the Sabbath. Rabbi Natan says: Behold, it says, "The children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath" (Exodus 31:16): profane one Sabbath on his behalf so that he may keep many sabbaths. "For it is a sign between Me and you" (Exodus 31:13) and not between Me and the nations of the world. "Throughout your generations": that the matter should be practiced for [all] generations. "To know": why is this said? Because it says "The children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath," I might understand that even a deaf-mute, an imbecile, and a minor are included; Scripture teaches, saying "to know": I spoke only of one who has knowledge. "I am the LORD who sanctifies you": in this world, a foretaste of the holiness of the world to come; this tells that the holiness of the Sabbath is a foretaste of the world to come. So it says, "A psalm, a song for the sabbath day" (Psalms 92:1), for the day that is wholly sabbath.