JUDAISM AND SUICIDE Alan Apter M D Feinberg

JUDAISM AND SUICIDE Alan Apter M. D. Feinberg Child Study Center Schneider Children’s Medical Center

Suicide and Judaism l Basic Tenets of Judaism regarding suicide l Biblical Exceptions l Massadah l Holocaust

BASIC TENETS l SOURCES (NOAH’S ARK) l PROHIBITIONS l LENIENCY l EUTHENASIA

Noah's Ark l l After the flood, God says to Noah Your blood which belongs to your souls I will demand From the hand of every beast will I demand it From the hand of every man; from the hand of every man who is his brother will I demand the life of man (Genesis 9: 5)

Rabbi Tzvi Meklenberg, "Haktav vi. Hakaballah: " l l l The seemingly repetitive nature of the verse in Genesis 9: 5: 'From the hand of every man; from the hand of every man who is his brother will I demand the life of man, ' refers to two types of murder: 1) to the detriment of the victim ("from the hand of every man"), such as for revenge, or money, etc. 2) for the benefit of the victim (Euthenasia) "

Talmud (Baba Kama 90 b) l "And surely the blood of your lives I will demand, " that one may not wound his own body l All the more so, he may not take his own life

BASIC TENENTS l l Judaism regards suicide as a criminal act Someone who commits suicide is considered a murderer It matters not whether he kills someone else or himself His soul is not his to extinguish

BASIC TENENTS l l In Judaism, life is valued above almost all else The Talmud notes that all people are descended from a single person Taking a single life is like destroying an entire world Saving a single life is like saving an entire world

BASIC TENENTS l Of the 613 commandments, only the prohibitions against murder, idolatry, incest and adultery are so important that they cannot be violated to save a life l Judaism not only permits, but often requires a person to violate the commandments if necessary to save a life

BASIC TENENTS l l l A person who is extremely ill, is not permitted to fast on Yom Kippur Doctors are permitted to answer emergency calls on Shabbat Abortions where necessary to save the life of a mother are mandatory

BASIC TENENTS l l When a person commits suicide, the soul has nowhere to go It cannot return to the body, because the body is destroyed It is not let in to any of the soul worlds, because its time has not come A person may commit suicide because he wants to escape, but in reality he is getting a far worse situation

BASIC TENENTS l l l We are not permitted to do anything that may hasten death, not even to prevent suffering Euthanasia, suicide and assisted suicide are strictly forbidden by Jewish law The Talmud states that you may not even move a dying person's arms if that would shorten his life

BASIC TENENTS l When a Jew commits suicide, he is not permitted a full Jewish burial l After death there are no solutions, only consequences

BASIC TENENTS l l l The Ten Commandments to Moses do not explicitly mention suicide, but forbid "killing" Apparent rarity of suicide in the Old Testament and throughout Jewish history may reflect a view of life as sacred Judaism did not permit religious burial of suicides, based on 2 nd century Talmudic writings (Mishnah) paralleling contemporary Roman and Christian laws and practices

BASIC TENENTS l Although they did not explicitly condemn suicide, some Talmudic scholars proposed that suicide could preclude eternal happiness l Punishment was intended only if suicides were "intentional, " as indicated by communication of intent, a criterion that may underlie the rarity of suicides reported in ancient Hebrew texts

BASIC TENENTS l l Judaism views suicide as one of the most serious of sins Suicide has always been forbidden by Jewish law in all cases It is not seen as an acceptable alternative even if one is being forced to commit certain cardinal sins for which one must give up one's life rather than sin Assisting in suicide and requesting such assistance (thereby creating an accomplice to a sinful act) is also forbidden

EXCEPTIONS l l There was a time in our history that in death we wanted to treat (suicides) separately because this was such a horrific violation of life The mourners should not mourn for the person who has taken their own life They should be buried not within the confines of the cemetery but outside of it The dignity of the body should still be preserved but they shouldn't glorify suicide at all

EXCEPTIONS l Today there is a far more enlightened atmosphere about understanding personal culpability for an act that's often done in despair, and a person is given every benefit of the doubt l For instance, a person comes and says, "I'm gonna kill myself" and has a gun

EXCEPTIONS l l First of all you need two witnesses to say to him "You shouldn't do that, it's against God's ruling. " But the person then leaves, walks out, and you hear the gun go off and you didn't see it. That person's given the benefit of the doubt because he probably tripped, you know, something else happened, he didn't do it on purpose

Burial l l When a Jew commits suicide, he is not permitted a full Jewish burial There is even a debate whether shiva (the seven-day mourning period) is observed Whether the kaddish prayer is said. In practice today, however, suicide is usually treated as a normal death, since it is assumed that the person was not of a normal state of mind.

Euthanasia l l Any form of active euthanasia is strictly prohibited and condemned as plain murder Jewish law maintains that one has no absolute ownership of one's body. We are given a body for a fixed time

Euthanasia l l We have no rights to tamper with life except for the purpose of preventing its destruction or loss Life, be it for 120 years, or a split second, is itself of infinite value. It has intrinsic value, mystical, and unfathomable

Suicide in the Bible Ablimlech - (Judges 9) who killed himself to avoid having it recorded that he was mortally wounded by a woman Samson - (Judges 16) who pulled the temple down upon the Philistines, killing them and praying that he die as well Saul - (Samuel 31) and his armor-bearer killed themselves rather than be taken captive by the Philistines Ahitophel - (Samuel 17) whose betrayal of David failed. Zimiri - (Kings 1) burned a building down upon himself

THE SUICIDE OF KING SAUL l l l The Philistines were battling against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and they slew. . . the sons of Saul. The battle then focused against Saul. The archers found him, and Saul was terrified of them. Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and stab me with it, lest these men come to stab and torture me. " But his armor-bearer did not consent, for he was very afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell upon it. When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dying, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. (Samuel II, 1: 5 -10)

Why Saul's suicide was unique: l l l Saul feared that his enemies would use torture to try to force him to worship other gods. (Ritva - 14 th century) Suicide is permitted in the face of an attempt at forced conversion. (Rabbeinu Tam - 12 th century) Suicide is permitted only if the lives of others would be in danger as a result of torture. (Rabbi Shlomo Luria - 16 th century)

SAUL l l Saul acted out of respect for the Israelite kingship, as he feared the Philistines would mockingly parade him through their cities. In other words, he committed suicide to sanctify God's name (Y'dai Moshe - 20 th century) In summary, suicide is absolutely prohibited, unless there are unusual and extenuating circumstances - e. g. forced conversion, endangering the lives of others, or sanctifying the Name of God

AVIMELECH Judges 9: 50 -57. l l l Was an unprincipled, ambitious ruler, often engaged in war with his own subjects When engaged in reducing the town of Thebez, which had revolted, he was struck mortally on his head by a mill-stone, thrown by the hand of a woman from the wall above Perceiving that the wound was mortal, he desired his armor-bearer to thrust him through with his sword, that it might not be said he had perished by the hand of a woman

ZIMRIKings 16: 15 -20 l 11 And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he slew all the house of Baasha: he left him not one that pisseth against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends l 15 In the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah. And the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines

ZIMRI l l l 16 And the people that were encamped heard say, Zimri hath conspired, and hath also slain the king: wherefore all Israel made Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp 17 And Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah 18 And it came to pass, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over him with fire, and died

Masadah

Zealots l l l After Judea was conquered by Rome the Zealots appeared. The Zealots were basically a nationalistic movement, not a religious one. They favored war against Rome, and believed that death was preferable to being under Roman control.

Zealots l l They would commit suicide rather than be taken prisoner. The most famous example of the was the defenders of Masada, who held the mountain fortress against the Roman Tenth Legion for months and ultimately committed suicide rather than surrender.

Masadah l l Judaism has contradictions over suicide A whole community commits suicide before they're attacked by the Roman Empire Individual suicide was always looked at with some sense of question How can someone take their life when in Judaism God gave us life?

Masadah l Massadah became a myth central to the national Jewish psyche after the Holocaust, when Jews needed to reinvent their national self-image from a people led helplessly to Nazi slaughterhouses into a people ready to die in self-defense rather than being victimized by persecutors l It is atop Massada's summit that Israel's Armored Corps recruits swear their oath of allegiance: "Massada Shall Not Fall Again"

NO EXIT Some German Jews informed of their deportation could not face the trial and committed suicide. In Mannheim, out of 2500 deportees 10 committed suicide. In Baden-Baden with scarcely 100 community members, 10 killed themselves. More suicides occurred during their transport to an unknown , to them, destination. Fritz Hirschberger

NO EXIT. l l Hirschberger's painting is a terse comment on the fate of such Jews, sometimes really converts to Christianity, who chose suicide. The German-Jewish suicide rate in the 1930 s was the highest in the world. In this painting, an assimilated appearing Jew holding a Jewish star necklace decides to take his life with a gun. The title of the painting may have been inspired by the famous existentialist play by Jean Paul Sartre, NO EXIT.

The Holocaust l l l September 1942 a 22 year old Jewish senior medical student, Adina Blady Szwajger, gave lethal doses of morphine to several elderly patients and about fifteen infants and children in order to spare them ignominious, certain death at the hands of the Nazis The older children were told that the medicine would make their pain go away They quickly fell asleep, but since Doctor Szwajger had to flee, it's uncertain whether all of the patients died as a result of the morphine

The Holocaust l l l Dr. Swajger escaped the ghetto and joined the Polish Jewish resistance In order to prevent detection because of the noise of infant cries, she had to perform several abortions Another time, she put to death a girl who had gone berserk and was running in the street, again, in order to save the lives of others The doctor survived the war and forty years continued her work as a pediatrician, but because of her previous actions always felt unworthy to be a doctor Tortured by her secret, she delayed publishing her memoirs until forty-five years later. Dr. Swajger died of cancer in Lodz in 1993

The Holocaust l l In her memoirs, Dr. Swajger described how only a few days after she had seen Korczak lead his orphans to the Umschlagplatz, she attempted suicide by swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills and vodka Unsuccessful and in a continued state of despair, she returned to work and it was only about three weeks later that she administered the morphine to the hospitalized patients

Janusz Korczak l Given the leisure of hindsight and safety, it is easy to cast aspersions, but it's also tempting to contrast her behavior with that of the martyred pediatrician, Janusz Korczak l He declined several opportunities to escape from the Warsaw ghetto in order to accompany and comfort the two hundred orphans in his charge when they were transported in cattle trains to their deaths at Treblinka

The Holocaust l l l The Jewish tradition teaches the paramount importance of life Both homicide and suicide are heinous crimes, but there may be extenuating circumstances Rabbi Shimon Efrati, formerly the rabbi of Bendery (Bessarabia) was deported to Siberia during the war and after the collapse of Germany, was appointed rabbi of the surviving community of Warsaw

The Holocaust l l l During his tenure there, he was asked whether a Jew hiding from the Germans in a ghetto bunker must repent for inadvertently smothering a crying infant to avoid detection? His responsum, published in 1961, concluded that Halacha does not require that the infant be killed; rather, it is optional. If one chooses to die rather than to kill the child, they shall be called holy However, the individual who did inadvertently suffocate the child should not have a bad conscience for he acted lawfully to save Jewish lives

The Holocaust l l l No doubt Rabbi Efrati was influenced by the fact that his own brother had been hiding in a bunker during such a search when a baby burst out crying The rabbi ordered that no one should risk harming the child and, as a result, all twenty people were discovered and murdered by the Nazis In another modern responsum, Rabbi Ephraim Oshry permitted a man faced with torture to commit suicide, but did not allow it to be published lest the ruling would undermine the commitment to life of other Jews in the Kovno ghetto

Suicide and Judaism l Basic Tenets of Judaism regarding suicide l Biblical Exceptions l Massadah l Holocaust