NUM28 The Supreme Value of Human Life. The value with which human life is regarded in the Jewish tradition is maximized far beyond the value placed upon human life in the Christian tradition or in Anglo–Saxon common law. In Jewish law and moral teaching the value of human life is supreme and takes presidence over virtually all other considerations. This attitude is the most eloquently summed up in a Talmudic passage regarding the creation of Adam: "Therefore only a single human being was created in the world, to teach that if any person has caused a single soul of Israel to perish, Scripture regards him as if he had caused an entire world to perish; and if any human being saves a single soul of Israel, Scripture regard him as if he had saved an entire world." (Sanhedrin 37a). Human life is not a good to be preserved as a condition of other values but as an absolute basic and precious good in its own stead. The obligation to preserve life is commensurately all-encompassing. Life with suffering is recorded as being, in many cases, preferable to cessation of life and with elimination of suffering. The Talmud, Sotah 22a, and Maimonides, Hilkhot Sotah 3:20, indicate that the adulterous woman who was made to drink "the bitter water" (Numbers 5:11-31) did not always die immediately. If she possessed other merit, even though guilty of the offense with which she was charged, the waters, rather than causing her to perish immediately, produced a debilitating and degenerative state which led to a protracted termination of life. The added longevity, although accompanied by pain and suffering, is viewed as a privilege bestowed in recognition of meritorious actions. (See also Tosafot Yom Tov, Sotah 1:9 and R. Eliezer Waldenberg, Assia, Nisan 5728, pp. 18-19). Life accompanied by pain is thus viewed as preferable to death. (See R. Eliezer Waldenberg, Ziz Eli'ezer, IX no. 47, sec. 5, who declares that despite the presence of pain everything possible must be done, even on the Sabbath, to prolong life "even (sic) the patient himself cries, 'Let me be and do not give me any aid because for me that is preferable.' See also R. Jehiel Michal Tucatzisky, Ha-Torah ve-ha-Medinah, IV (1952), 39). It is this sentiment which is reflected in the words of the Psalmist: Tthe Lord has indeed punished me, but He has not left me to die" (Psalms 118:88).