I have a couple of hypotheticals based on the sugya of “ain ma’avrin al hamtizvos” that I’m curious about:
1) Michael – an attorney – is out of town, driving on a remote country road. He has his cell phone with him but it’s about to die with only enough power to take a one-minute important call he’s expecting from client A scheduled to go into court at 9am. (Michael’s commitment to speak with him was only if he would be available). At 8:45am, he receives a call from client B who also needs very timely advice but of lesser seriousness than client A. If Michael takes the call, the phone will die and he’ll forfeit client A’s call. Which call should he take?
2) Sarah had just returned home from giving Rachel a ride to the airport for a 6:30 flight to the UK for a long-awaited job interview scheduled the next day. It was now 5pm and Sarah was getting ready to leave for NY for a family gathering her parents had adamantly requested her to attend that evening before their departure for Israel immediately thereafter. As she was about to leave, she receives a frantic call from Rachel pleading with her to return to the airport as quickly as possible; Rachel had left her passport in Sarah’s car. She can’t get through security and she may miss the flight. Sarah thinks for a moment but realizes that there’s not enough time for her to drive back to the airport as well as get to NY in time before her parents would leave. What should she do? Help her friend go on her very important trip or honor her parents?
Answer:
1) This is a little like the famous question of somebody who has one day leave from prison: Should he take the first day available, or should he wait for Yom Kippur or another weighty occasion (see Radvaz 4:13; Chacham Zvi 106)? However, there is no need to get into this subject for the question, because in the case of the attorney he reserves the right to choose which phone calls to take and which not to, and if he feels that Client A’s call is more important he should wait for this call and refrain from answering Client B. This is similar to the logic employed by the Chacham Zvi (go with the more important mitzvah), though in the case of the attorney it is more intuitive because there is no imperative of ein maavirin.
2) This is a tough call. Of course, in practice the right thing to do is for Rachel to send the passport with a taxi cab to the airport, and go to see her parents. In the hypothetical case where this is not possible, I suppose it would be correct for Rachel to go to her parents and refrain from causing them anguish.
Best wishes.
