Breaking Torah Law or Civil Law
Question
If someone has to violate civil law and risk going to jail in order to obey Torah law, what is one supposed to do?
It just so happened that I witnessed a car accident this Shabbat. No injuries, but a lot of property damage. A police officer arrived on the scene and demanded I sign a witness statement. He said if I didn’t sign it, he would put me in handcuffs and into a police car and take me to jail for failure to obey a lawful order. I told him I couldn’t sign on Saturday because of my religious beliefs, but he didn’t care. He was very mean and viewed me as uncooperative. There was no one else around I could ask for help. I concluded that either way, I would be breaking Shabbat, and I reluctantly signed it with a scribble.
Answers
What a terrible story! Personally, I think that you should contact Agudath Israel (https://agudah.org/contact-us/) and ask them to file an official complaint against the policeman.
In any event, what you did was correct. Even better than a scribble would have been to sign using your left hand instead of your right hand (or, if you are left handed, your right hand instead of your left hand), which would mean that you signed with a “shinui,” an obviously different way than you would have signed on a regular weekday.
Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team
I spoke with a local rabbi this morning who is taking the matter into his hands regarding what happened
I hope that he is successful and that the policeman is reprimanded. If the Rabbi doesn’t get anywhere (which, unfortunately, is a distinct possibility nowadays) then I think that you should try Agudath Israel.
Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team