Torah vs. Saving Lives

Megillah 16b

Rav Yosef said: Studying Torah is greater than saving lives, as initially, when listing the Jewish leaders who came to Eretz Yisrael, Mordecai was mentioned after four other people, but at the end he was listed after five. This is taken to indicate that his involvement in governmental affairs instead of in Torah study lowered his stature one notch. The Gemara proves this: At first it is written: “Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan” (Ezra 2:2); but in the end in a later list it is written: “Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahmani, Mordecai, Bilshan” (Nehemiah 7:7).

Taz, Yoreh Deah 251:14 (6) On the Gemara in Megillah at the end of the first chapter "Greater is Talmud Torah than saving a life." Certainly, nothing stands before saving a life. It is saying there that the one who is studying Torah and is not presented with the call to save a life has greater merit than the one who is put in that situation. [David ha-Levi Segal (c. 1586 – 20 February 1667)] 

The Ben Ish Chai (Ben Yohoyada) says this refers to not actual saving of life but to working for the potential of saving lives. This is after the Purim story where Mordechai worked in government affairs. [Yosef Hayim (1 September 1835 – 30 August 1909)]

גָּדוֹל תַּלְמוּד תּוֹרָה יוֹתֵר מֵהַצָּלַת נְפָשׁוֹת. הקשה הרי"ף למה לא דייק זה מדכתיב (אסתר י, ג) 'לְרֹב אֶחָיו' ולא כתיב 'לְכָל אֶחָיו' יעוין שם, ותירוצו דחוק מאד.

ונראה לי בס"ד דמעיקרא קושיא ליתא דמשם איכא למילף להיפך, יען דקאמר המיעוט הוא דפרשו אבל הרוב לא סבירא ליה הכי וילפינן מסברת הרבים ואיך ילפינן מדעת המיעוט להכי מייתי מקראי דנכתבים ברוח הקודש ודייקינן מנייהו שפיר דהא רוח הקודש הסכימה גם כן כסברת המיעוט. ועוד נראה לי דמכאן איכא הוכחה טפי דאף על גב דעלה לארץ ישראל ועזב השררה, עם כל זה מנאו אחר חמשה.

ודע דהא דקאמר יותר מהצלת נפשות לאו הצלת נפשות בודאי ממש דהא ודאי אין דבר עומד בפני פקוח נפש, אך הכונה על ספק הצלת נפשות דהא 

"And know when it says that it (Talmud Torah) is greater than the saving of lives, it is not referring to the definite saving of lives. Behold, nothing stands before with the saving of life. It is established on the doubtful saving of life. The righteous Mordechai, may he rest in peace, seized the kingdom after Israel had already been saved and the miracle had been performed, and only said that perhaps the matter of saving souls would come to him from here on out."

Seems to me that the term greater is vague here. It could mean only that we must always put the Talmid Chocham first because through the Torah we learn what to do. It does not necessarily mean that Mordechai's reward is less. 

You see also here the difference between the Litvack and the Sephardi. The Litvack, and the Taz was a kind of early Litvack, sees in this that study is the greater and provides the most merit. His reading doesn't fit the text as well as that of the Sephardi who takes from the Gemara it's more fitting meaning. The Litvish obsession with study and reward is visible here. And it's how this Gemara was always presented to me, but I see now that the presentation is very Litvish and not necessarily what the Gemara is saying. 

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