Going beyond the prohibition of the rabbis to avoid rape according to the Torah
Hello,
If a person arrives late on Shabbat night and knows that he will most likely not be able to get up to recite Shema on time, is he permitted to set an alarm clock to get up on time (assuming that this is the only option available to him)?
Absolutely not. Assuming that an alarm clock is a rabbinical prohibition, there is no permission to do so. If he is raped and does not wake up to Kash, then he is raped. And even if he were not considered raped, it is still forbidden to do so. See the issue of the rediyyat of the fath in the Shabbos (4:1) and in the commentaries and poskim there. And note that there it is a prohibition that you will transgress because of your actions and not about not fulfilling a mitzvah in rape, from which you could only be saved.
Wikipedia states regarding the kneading of the dough that the Gemara concludes that it is permissible for a person to knead the dough in order to prevent transgressing a Torah prohibition, meaning that the Sages did not place their words in a position where a person would, by carrying out their words, fall into a Torah prohibition.
I mean, if he wasn't forced, it would be permissible to set a clock, right?
First, even on the issue of the rediyyah of the fath, the conclusion is not so simple. Thos’ writes there that they permitted it because they knew that they would not be heard in the prohibition (after all, he is liable to stoning). That is, from the very nature of the matter, it is not permissible to transgress a rabbinical prohibition in such a situation. In the case of an active nullification, there is no obstacle for him to observe the rabbinical prohibition and transgress the Torah (in which case he will indeed be heard. There is no stoning). Beyond that, there is a prohibition, not an active nullification. And beyond that, there is a question of saving a transgression that he has already committed, and here it is a question of avoiding entering into future rape (which is doubtful whether there is such an obligation at all. The Rishonim and the Poskim disagreed on this in several places).
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