If you want to temporarily disable an iptables rule, you need to edit it at the right point in the chain, since the rules are enforced in a specific order. Fortunately iptables lets you save and reload a list of rules, so the way to temporarily disable a rule is to save off the rule list, edit it, and then restore it:
iptables-save > ~/firewall-v1.rules
iptables-save > ~/firewall-v2.rules
vi ~/firewall.rules
iptables-restore ~/firewall-v1.rules
You can comment out lines with a “#”, then restore them when you’re finished with your task.
It seems that iptables-restore deletes the file, so having two copies allows you to revert if you wish.