Our Sages said, “One should run to do a mitzvah and flee from a sin” (Avot 4:2). The concept of fleeing is to be concerned even about a remote possibility of sinning, as the Rabbis said, one should run past one hundred gates of that which is permitted in order to avoid even one that which is prohibited (cf. Chavas Halevavos, Sha’ar HaTeshuvah, ch. 5). Our Sages also said, “Love the ‘perhaps’” (Derech Eretz Zuta 1:11). That is, any time one wishes to go somewhere, he should be concerned that perhaps going there will lead to sin. And whenever one wishes to say something, he should be even more worried that perhaps this will cause me to speak forbidden speech — and so on, regarding all of one’s activities. The only activities one should do are those that one must do for the sake of a mitzvah or for some personal need, and even that, only after verifying without a doubt that it will not lead to the slightest sin. This is pure fear of Heaven. Fortunate is the person who fears Hashem! One who truly guards himself from any sinful matter, Hashem, as well, guards him from all evil; He will protect the person from any spiritual misstep.
Our Sages said: “Danger is more stringent than prohibitions” (Chullin 10a); that is, possible physical danger is more severe than possible prohibition and therefore one must flee even more from a place of potential danger, or from where harm is likely, and not rely on any miracle. For perhaps Heaven will not perform a miracle for the person; and if a miracle is done for the person, his merits that were due him in the World to Come are diminished.
We see that the greatest people fled from danger and thereby escaped danger: Yaakov fled (Hoshea 12:13); Moshe fled (Shemos 2:15); and Eliyahu arose and fled for his life (I Melachim 19:3), and others. Certainly, we, who have committed numerous sins, must be very concerned about dangerous situations, for “the Accuser prosecutes at a time of peril” (Bereishis Rabbah 91:9). We may learn this concept from what the Torah says with regard to soldiers exempted from battle. Before going out to battle, the kohen announces: Who is the man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house (Devarim 20:8). Our Sages explain that this refers to a man who is fearful because of the sins he has committed; even if all he did was that] he spoke between donning hand-tefillin and donning the head-teffilin, it is a sin for which he returns from the battle. All the more so, we, who have committed more sins than that minor sin, must flee from even the most remote possibility of danger.
