The Advocate

(Art by Robert Deninno) Kavod Habriyot : human honor and dignity. A concept for how we interpret and apply Jewish laws and rules where we uplift the inherent value and worth of a person over anything else. It is another principle that allows a Jew to violate religious requirements in pursuit of a higher good that is similar to pikuach nefesh (saving a life). For instance, when Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak is challenged by Rabbi Yohanan, the brother of his good friend Mar. The story goes that a corpse was found in the city of Derokera, and Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak permitted carrying it to a karmelit (a semi-public domain into which carrying on Shabbat only involves a minor transgression). Notably, "Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak was a renowned scholar who later became head of the Babylonian Academy in Pumbeditha. But as we are taught elsewhere, his primary scholarly achievements involved not innovating new legal positions, but accurately preserving and sharing the Torah teachings that he had recei...