Shabbos 30b
Better Living than Dead
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Passage Content
| For a living dog is better than a dead lion. |
The ultimate conclusion of this discussion
is that life is preferable to death.
A lamp is called ner and a person’s soul is also called ner,
| The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord. |
This means that it is preferable that the lamp
of a being of flesh and blood, an "actual" lamp,
will be extinguished in favor of the lamp God,
a person’s soul. Therefore, one is permitted
to extinguish a flame for the sake of a sick person.