The Jewish Holidays; The Jewish View of Suicide

the thought of suicide said the german philosopher nature is a great consolation by means of that one gets successfully through many a bad night whether to be or not to be is a question which sees is all manner of manner of man is a topic discussed from the beginning of time suicide or have thought of it is as old as murder and almost as old as natural death itself the contemporary writer combo in his great book the plague sees the problem of suicide as the central problem a modern man who has lost a sense of meaning in life and what follows i wish to outline the traditional jewish view on the matter as it emerges from the classical literature of judaism the bible the common and the sacred writings of the people of israel in order to discuss this vast topic

it will be helpful to make the distinction which is offered by the famous french sociologist emile durkheim and his classic study of suicide dr grimes suggests that there are two types of suicides one which he calls a goat testicle suicide and another which he calls out to his stick suicide annual testicle suicide individual puts an end to his own life because of a lack of integration in a society and out of motives originated in himself because of the terrible pressures of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune because of other types of suffering or because of a philosophical disc decision to end his existence york times says that belcher was thick suicide is the taking of one's own

life resulting from the individual's commitment to his religious community his people or his nation as we will see judaism as well as other great religions i'm sure makes it quite different view of each of these two types of suicide egotistical and now to a stick but is there for first consider the view of judaism concerning their kinds egotistical type of suicide it is interesting to note that there is no term for suicide in the hebrew bible though there are tyrannical commandments concerning all manner of crimes murder incest there is no legal term for suicide nor any explicit prohibition against it this is probably the result of

the fact that suicide was not an important problem during early biblical times and therefore it was not necessary to legislate concerning that is not to say that they're not they're not they're not instances of suicide in the bible in the second book of samuel for example in the seventeen chapters told that i vetoed felt when he saw that his counsel was not followed he settled his animal a rose and got a moment to a city and set his house in order and strangle them self and the brokers continues and he died and was buried in the supple care of his father it is interesting to note that the nurse stresses that out he told joe was buried in the simple care of his father's this is in

contrast to the practice of the romans and other ancient peoples who did not permit burial of suicides or criminals the lack of burial was considered by ancient man a punishment to which there was no equal in severity or in suffering in the economic times there was a specific condemnation of suicide this combination was based and the verse in the book of genesis chapter nine first five quote and surely the blood of your lives will i require this according to the rabbis applied to suicides as well the idea wasn't related also by some commentators to the prohibition against murder which is found in the ten commandments the idea behind it this combination of suicide is of course the approach

and the understanding that since life comes from god every man is responsible to write it and to enhance it if one takes the life of another or takes his own life he's transgressing against god's gracious gift and whether the victim is another or oneself the act of cutting off life offends god who is the lord of life this notion is in sharp contrast for example to review current among the greek philosophers who felt that the present life was a penance which took the form of imprisonment and therefore to kill oneself was to attempt quite vainly to shirk a desert penalty in the jewish view life it's not a prison it is a privilege and a gift to cut it off therefore is an offense against them being who has given it

to us at the end of the rabbinic period there was a codification of the laws of murder suicide and mourning which is called the track gates of my fault and in this tract eight we read the following passage he will destroys himself willingly in hebrew moderate at that smaller dot is not entitled to any of the funeral rites there is no tearing of the clothes on the part of his relatives no removal of issues a sign of mourning in ancient times or any eulogy is pronounced over the suicide however in the manner of joyously literature the definitions of destroying oneself willingly a term which connotes suicide but which contains the term willingly became so broad that only a few cases could really come under the

category of a willing suicide therefore the text and myself it's muffled continues what is the definition of mob made up at that small about one who destroys himself willingly it does not prefer says the text two one who goes to the top of a tree and falls from it and dies or one who goes to a roof and falls from it and dice what it refers to one who declares behold i am going to the top of a tree or to the top of the roof and i will throw myself off from there and i will die and then he was seen going to the top of the tree or to the top of the roof and he died he is considered to be one who destroyed himself willingly however if one were found strangled or in any other way they're going then he is considered as one who did not commit suicide willingly that is to say he may have been the victim of foul play whether one

is a willing suicide or unwilling one burial isn't the night you know and a privilege which as i said before was not given two suicides in other cultures and in other religious communities however the key phrase here is let that hot willingly later commentators broadened the definition of this term in such a way that only a very very few people could be designated as willing suicides they believed that conscious suicide involved a rejection of life and therefore that one who takes his life because he is beset by troubles or was spirit is tormented or was afraid of tortures that might be his lot in the future though of course he's not to be praised neither is he to be condemned as a conscious suicide a contemporary the sites are or

commentator on jewish law therefore summarizes the results of comments throughout the centuries in the following way our stage is sought out in many times and many instances explanations for one who seemed to be a conscious suicide until the result was that not even one real suicide who could be called a conscious suicide ever was designated therefore we have a characteristic jewish approach to the problem of suicide morally it has condemned teachers are won't to condemn it before their audiences but legally that is in actual practice it is neither never or hardly ever

apply the moralists spoke of suicide very frequently even in a broader and less specific sense one of the great preacher is off the last century told the story of a certain man who once calculated that if he journeyed to warsaw on a matter of business he would make a profit of a thousand rubles if he did not go immediately to warsaw you would or nothing he hired a coach meant to drive him that night to the railroad station so that he could arrive in time two hours before a scheduled departure he began to feel sudden and severe pains in his head summon a doctor who warned him to rest but he undertook a journey in any case and he fell victim to a heart attack according to this more lists in his imagination when the

merchant appear before the heavenly tribe you know the judges pronounce sentence upon him you are a murderer you are also an apostate and he answered that i killed no one they replied you killed yourself and the doctor said that you must rest you did not listen to him and even though you were ill you made a journey toward self because of this to kill yourself and died before your time there for suicide in a specific sense or in a sense in which one waste his energy is condemned by more lives and preachers however in actual practice and in the rights of burial and mourning there is a consideration for the difficulties and the tortures and sufferings which flesh is there too and therefore it is almost impossible according to the

definitions in jewish religious literature to really designate a conscious suicide it says the method overt religion such as judaism which is based on law and president as well as moral preached that by retaining the category the moral condemnation is preserved but the practice takes into consideration all of the stresses and strains which might really desperate people to take their own lives you recall that we spoke of two types of suicide egotistical and helped us to the second category of suicide belt from the sticks you aside is of course evaluated differently in judaism according to the biblical view the people of israel is a covenant that community committed to testifying in its corporate life for the purposes of god on earth this testimony is called in judaism he'd do wish kai shane and

sanctification of the name of that is to say that through one's actions that drove to which one has committed is verified an exhibit this may sometimes required to giving up of one's life the ultimate testimony to the sanctity of god's name in the tradition of judaism there are many stories of heroic instances of what might be called in their crimes terms heroic an elder with the suicidal one the most famous of these instances is the case of the defenders of the jewish fortress of messiah which is the subject of a magnificent exhibit in the jewish museum in new york city and which will be shown in museums around the country ms sadat was a fortress in the wilderness of judea in

which the survivors all the fall of jerusalem to the romans in the year seventy held out for three years against aid overwhelmingly secure your force of the enemy finally when the romans using a very advanced technological methods of warfare salt seemed to doom mesaba the survivors gathered in the night before the final roman assault and according to josephus the historian of the period ellie as urbaniak here spoke to the defenders of the midst of mossad in the following words quote since we long ago my generous friends resolve never to be servants to the romans nor to any other than to god himself who alone is a true and just lord of mankind the time has now come it obliges us to make a resolution true in practice let us not at this time bring a reproach

upon ourselves for self contradiction which why we formally would not undergo slavery though it were then without danger but my snout together with slavery to such punishment also as are intolerable that are about wives died before they are abused and our children before they have tasted of slavery and after we have slain them let us be still that glorious benefit upon one another mutually and preserve ourselves and freedom as an excellent funeral monument for us but first let us destroyer money in the forties by fire for him well it sure that this will be a great relief to the romans and they shall not be able to seize upon our bodies and show fail of our wealth also and let us pair nothing but are provisions where they will be a testimonial when we are dead but we were not subdued for want of necessaries but that according to our original resolution we have preferred that before slavery and as you see this continues the tail final fate

of the heroic defenders of misrata was that they took each other's lives and has lots who would put an end to whom and when the romans entered the fortress they found all of the road defenders dead by their own hand or by the hand of their compatriots this incident which as i said is dramatized so forcefully and so magnificently in the mossad exhibit which is appearing in the jewish museum in another museum's is it an example of the jewish experience of hell to a stick suicide but of course this experience was not limited merely to be classical times an ancient times but was unfortunately and sorrowfully the experience of jews and others throughout the ages recently there was a book published

or third my professor shell launched people of the jewish theological seminary of america in which some of the medieval chronicles of the jewish communities in europe were recounted unfortunately frequently these communities had to suffer a martyrdom because of their truthfulness and that their steadfastness to their own fate professor spiegel tells the following tale now there was a certain saintly man there an elder well i mean years and his name was rubbing the samuel are you feel he had an only son a splendid looking young man who with his father fled into the water and they're offered his throat for slaughter by his father because they were beset by enemies who wish to tear them away from their ancestral faith whereupon the father reese it the appropriate blessing the son responded a man

and all those who were standing around them responded in a loud voice hero is real archival artist won all citizens of the world take a good look how extraordinary was the stamina of the sun one unbound let himself be slaughtered and how extraordinary was the stamina of the father who could resist compassion for on only son so splendid and handsome a young man these experiences and others in the middle ages testified to the readiness all those who were believers in the truce of judaism to undergo she do shed shame the sanctification of the name through suffering and even taking one's own life so as not to be forced to transgress the holy commandments of their faith however there are warnings throughout the literature that though these

acts are a splendid inspiring and testify so affectively to the truth of judaism they should be undergone and cause to be imposed upon others only when they are absolutely necessary nor martyrdom is the greatest of all religious acts it is not always call for only in extreme situations when the glory of truth and the glory of the god of truth will be truly served by it but when other alternatives might suggest themselves then life should be preserved this you of course exhibits an understanding of the world which is different than that of the self centered approach which is characteristic of so many both in ancient times and in contemporary times which sees good and evil measured

only by the pain and pleasure of the individual and which does denies the responsibility to a larger hole in our own tragic and horrible times especially during the sufferings of the jewish community's under the nazi or christian frequently questions arose according to those who survive whether it was permissible to commit suicide in order to avoid the sufferings which were certainly to be imposed by the next ceo presses there is a rabbi living here in new york city who pope who was a survivor of these events and who collected a series of questions which were asked by to him by people who were living in the ghettos in europe rabbi archery the author of

this work reports that one's a man came to him and said to him that it was impossible to withstand the terrorists which were certainly to before him and asked the rabbi whether it was permitted to commit suicide a result he said also that he would be buried in a hallowed ground rather then to have his body cast into the ovens rabbi archery reports that he searched the book the holy books and thought about the problem for many hours and he came to the following conclusion from everything that we have seen and read we have learned that since they will certainly tortured him it seems that it is permitted to kill oneself read ashley adds however to publicize this as a religious rule what only made those who oppress us because they taught the jews frequently as to why they do not practice the same kind of practice that the jews of

berlin did and put an end to themselves and their troubles however it should be noted that says rabbi archery that in the ghetto of color in lithuania there were few suicides perhaps only three but that the other inhabitants of the ghetto believed in perfect faith that god will not abandon his people and they all believed he says in the coming of the redemption and the side there for in summary we see that in regard to the logistical suicide that is suicide which is motivated by a disgust for life and an abandonment of god's gift judaism feels and teaches that life is precious and therefore should not be given up so cavalierly and willingly into steve's life

and it has as its motto the verse in the bible or the heart of a high in the shell to choose life the torah which is a sacred literature of judaism is called to ratify it in the tower of life in interesting contrast to the great book of egypt which is called the book of the dead judaism however recognizes that men are week anna sale by the slayings of outrageous fortune and two the thousand natural shock says shakespeare put it that flesh is there too we should bear these and understand them but it's men break and crack under the burden they are to be pitied rather than scorn and certainly their families and friends should be comforted rather than

anguished thus egotistical suicide from a moral and religious and theological kind of you is condemned but from the point of view or religious right and ritual there is sympathy and understanding and eight no knowledge that suicide frequently results from pressures which cannot be resisted however over and above this there stands a larger hole of which we are part of the people in which we have sunk our roots and the god who demands from us that we'd be his weaknesses through life a life which is love and cherished and jealously guarded but sometimes that is the greatest testimony that we can't give to the preciousness of life if buy our debt we can testify to others that life has meaning that justice must prevail and that freedom is beyond price when we do

that we have preferred life even in that and even as our life on earth is touched by eternity those who give their life for the sake of truth will enter eternity there to enjoy that life which has finally conquered that thus a dialectical view towards life is exhibited in jewish literature love esteem life do not and that against the will of him who has given it to you this is egotistical suicide but sometimes and we pray and frequently and perhaps never again men are called to give their life so that other men will believe in the value and the holiness of life itself