It’s a concept from Halacha – that the laws of Judaism can be broken if a life is at stake.  We got to see the premier of the play at the Cameri two days ago.  

it’s a remarkable play – but impossible to translate in detail.  Every sentence has a reference to religious literature, and it is ingenious.  But the plot is important to understanding some of the greatest conflicts of the society – the struggle between the religious life and the attempts to create an alternative culture.  

In this case it is the struggle of the only son in a religious family between studying torah and writing poetry.  There is so much poetry that develops from religious writings  that although the play seems to indicate that the worlds are incompatible, they enrich each other. They do, in fact, save each other.