Noach - Can Suicide be Justified?

This will be my first installment in my new weekly RMH Parsha series!  

I decided to temporarily venture away from the Kosher topic and to try this out.  I hope this new series will be informative and stimulate interesting discussion. I might miss a few weeks, but I will try to pick a "medical-Halachic" topic from the weekly parshah (Torah portion) and write about it.

This week I had a lot to choose from, but I will choose to discuss the topic of suicide in Halacha. In the Torah portion this week we read the story of Noah and the flood.  When Noah left the ark as the flood receded, God instructed him as follows:

But for your own life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of man, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every man for that of his fellow man! (Genesis 9:5)

The words "for your own lifeblood etc." have been interpreted by the Talmud as the Biblical origin of the prohibition against taking one's own life.

...as it is taught in a baraita: The verse states: “And surely your blood of your souls will I require” (Genesis 9:5), and Rabbi Elazar says: From the hand of your souls, i.e., from yourself, will I require your blood, meaning one is liable even for taking his own life (Tractate Bava Kamma 91b)

This law was codified by Maimonides (Mishna Torah Laws of Murder 2:2) and in all subsequent Halachic codes.  Not much controversy there, and a standard accepted Halacha.  However, it is not so simple.  There have been many high-profile cases of suicides in the turbulent and difficult history of the Jewish people. I will list some of the more prominent instances and describe briefly the controversy surrounding each one.

Avoiding Certain Painful Death 

First, let us look at the suicides recorded in the Tanach.  We will begin with the tragic fate of King Saul, who was the first king of the united Kingdom of Israel, as he was surrounded by the Philistine enemy, and faced certain capture and likely taunting and torture. 

The Philistines attacked Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and [many] fell on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines pursued Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, sons of Saul. The battle raged around Saul, and some of the archers hit him, and he was severely wounded by the archers. Saul said to his arms-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, so that the uncircumcised may not run me through and make sport of me.” But his arms-bearer, in his great awe, refused; whereupon Saul grasped the sword and fell upon it. When his arms-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. (Samuel I 31:2-5)

The reasoning for the suicide of Saul and his arms-bearer seems obvious.  He faced imminent capture by the Philistines, the enemy with whom he had fought countless wars throughout his reign. Once captured, it is not difficult to imagine what he would have been forced to endure at their hands. In addition, one can imagine the humiliation that this would have caused to the people of Israel when their King was treated this way.  In Jeremiah we find how the Chaldean enemy would desecrate the bones of the buried kings in order to humiliate the people of Judah at the time of the destruction of the first temple:

At that time—declares the LORD—the bones of the kings of Judah, of its officers, of the priests, of the prophets, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be taken out of their graves and exposed to the sun, the moon, and all the host of heaven which they loved and served and followed, to which they turned and bowed down. They shall not be gathered for reburial; they shall become dung upon the face of the earth (Jeremiah 8:1-2)

One can only imagine what the Philistines would have done to the King when captured alive.

The Rabbis (Genesis Rabbah 34:13) point out that the language "but...reckoning" (see full quote above Genesis 9:5) " infers that there are exceptions to this rule.  The example the rabbis give is the suicide of Saul (And Hananiah Mishael and Azariah which we will discuss later).  So apparently, in this instance the Rabbis approved of the suicide of Saul. We mentioned two potential rationales for his suicide, to avoid torture and death and to avoid national humiliation.  The Rabbis do not explain why they supported his decision, but it is reasonable to assume that it was because he was avoiding certain death at the hands of the enemy.  This is because Saul explicitly stated this reason.  This is indeed how it was understood by the later Halakhists, as it was codified in the Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 345.  

This then is the first understandable rationale for suicide, to avoid certain painful death.  Whether or not this can be extended to the avoidance of certain painful death at the hands of a different type of "enemy", such as a terminal illness is a very interesting question. However, it is beyond the scope of this post.

Suicide to Save Others

The next famous suicide recorder in Tanach is that of the mighty Samson:

As their spirits rose, they said, “Call Samson here and let him dance for us.” Samson was fetched from the prison, and he danced for them. Then they put him between the pillars. And Samson said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, “Let go of me and let me feel the pillars that the temple rests upon, that I may lean on them.” Now the temple was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and there were some three thousand men and women on the roof watching Samson dance. Then Samson called to the LORD, “O Lord GOD! Please remember me, and give me strength just this once, O God, to take revenge of the Philistines, if only for one of my two eyes.” He embraced the two middle pillars that the temple rested upon, one with his right arm and one with his left, and leaned against them; Samson cried, “Let me die with the Philistines!” and he pulled with all his might. The temple came crashing down on the lords and on all the people in it. Those who were slain by him as he died outnumbered those who had been slain by him when he lived. (Judges 16:25-30)

Samson's suicide was intentional, but nonetheless it is almost universally considered heroic.  There are multiple reasons why this is likely true. One is because as a high-profile prisoner his own ultimate death at the hands of the Philistines was almost certain, similar to the case of Saul.  However, there is more to it than that.  By killing the Philistines, he was killing an implacable foe of the people of Israel.  They were actively engaged in fighting a war. By his suicide, he was saving the people of Israel. We now have another suicide that was justified on a different basis. A soldier in wartime committing suicide in order to save his people.  

This can have ramifications on the battlefield of course, the story of the hero from the Lebanon war Roi Klein immediately comes to mind.  He jumped upon a live grenade in battle thus saving his fellow soldiers' lives.  Another hero is the soldier Uri Ilan, who committed suicide in 1954 as a captive in a Syrian prison.  He felt that he would succumb to the torture of his captors and give away secrets, so he hung himself, scribbling a note later found in his cell that stated, "I have not given away information, I killed myself".

Here we see a picture of Rabbi Shlomo Goren the military chief Rabbi standing on the left, saluting the grave of Uri Ilan.  Partly in response to this event, Rabbi Goren wrote a responsa permitting suicide for Israeli soldiers in terrible predicaments such as this.  He based his decision on the precedent of Samson.   Many questions can be raised about this idea though.  Does this apply only to soldiers? Is sacrificing yourself for others always considered appropriate?  This is no simple matter of course, and again beyond the scope of this post.

Martyrdom

There are many instances in which people gave their lives in order to sanctify God's name.  There is a difference however, between people who actually ended their own lives, versus allowed themselves to be killed under these tragic circumstances.  My focus in this post is on the permissibility of taking one's own life.  However, I must mention that there is a very fine line between these two types of scenarios.  The most famous perhaps, is the story of Chananiah, Mishael and Azariah, as recorded in the Book of Daniel chapter 3.  They gave themselves up for death in a furnace, rather than commit idolatry.  However, they did not kill themselves.  I will focus now on whether or not one may take their own lives, if the alternative is to be forced into idolatry or other terrible fate.

Suicide To Avoid Torture and Suffering

The Talmud in Gittin 57b relates the following tragic story, which occurred during the aftermath of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem:

There was an incident involving four hundred boys and girls who were taken as captives for the purpose of prostitution. These children sensed on their own what they were expected to do, and they said: If we commit suicide and drown in the sea, will we come to eternal life in the World-to-Come? The oldest child among them expounded the verse: “The Lord said, I will bring back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea” (Psalms 68:23).“I will bring back from Bashan,”I.e...., from between the teeth [bein shen] of the lion, and “I will bring them back from the depths of the sea” is referring to those who drown in the sea for the sake of Heaven. When the girls heard this, they all leapt and fell into the sea. The boys then drew an a fortiori inference with regard to themselves and said: If these girls, for whom sexual intercourse with men is their natural way, act in such a manner, then we, for whom sexual intercourse with men is not our natural way, should all the more so conduct ourselves likewise. They too leapt into the sea. Concerning them and others like them the verse states: “As For Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter” (Psalms 44:23).

These children are being praised for their actions, but was it the right thing to do? according to Tosafot, it seems that they were allowed to commit suicide because they were afraid the horrific torture and suffering that would be subjected to as Roman sex slaves. Under such circumstances one may take one's own life.  It is debated though, as some commentaries understand that it was only permissible for these children because they knew that not only would they have to endure sexual enslavement, they would also be forcibly converted to idolatry (see Petach Eynayim for example).  However, there is no mention of this in the Talmud or the Tosafot.  So, the simple understanding of this story is that to avoid torture, one may take their own life.  How and when this idea can or should be applied, is a complicated topic indeed.

Suicide to avoid enslavement or capture

Perhaps the most famous mass suicide in Jewish history was the suicide of the close to one thousand defenders of the last remaining Jewish fortress of Masada during the revolt against the Roman conquerors.  This was recorded by Josephus, and there is some controversy regarding the historical veracity of his account.  Nonetheless, this event has become an important part of the Jewish historical consciousness.   As the Romans were about to breach the walls of the fortress, which would've meant the certain enslavement of the Jewish defenders, their leader Elazar gave the following speech:

"Since we, long ago, my generous friends, resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than to God himself, who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice. And let us not at this time bring a reproach upon ourselves for self-contradiction, while we formerly would not undergo slavery, though it were then without danger, but must now, together with slavery, choose such punishments also as are intolerable; I mean this, upon the supposition that the Romans once reduce us under their power while we are alive. We were the very first that revolted from them, and we are the last that fight against them; and I cannot but esteem it as a favor that God hath granted us, that it is still in our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom, which hath not been the case of others, who were conquered unexpectedly. It is very plain that we shall be taken within a day's time; but it is still an eligible thing to die after a glorious manner .... this was  the effect of God's anger against us for our manifold sins, which we have been guilty of in a most insolent and extravagant manner with regard to our own countrymen; the punishments of which let us not receive from the Romans, but from God himself, as executed by our own hands; for these will be more moderate than the other. Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children before they have tasted of slavery; and after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually, and preserve ourselves in freedom, as an excellent funeral monument for us. But first let us destroy our money and the fortress by fire; for I am well assured that this will be a great grief to the Romans, that they shall not be able to seize upon our bodies, and shall fall of our wealth also; and let us spare nothing but our provisions; for they will be a testimonial when we are dead that we were not subdued for want of necessaries, but that, according to our original resolution, we have preferred death before slavery." Josephus Flavius, The Wars of the Jews, VII 8.6

The speech was much longer, but from the excerpts I just quoted it seems evident that the primary motivation of the mass suicide was to avoid slavery and humiliation at the hands of the Romans. However, they were also concerned about rape, torture, and more.  Most of us were raised to think of the people of Masada as heroes, but did they do the right thing?  

In support of the Masada defenders, many would cite the precedents above that support the option of suicide in face of certain death or intolerable suffering (see here for an example of this defense).  Others might claim that the Romans would've forced them to give up their religion, but this argument doesn't show up in Elazar's speech at all, nor does it seem like an accurate fear historically.  

Famously, Rabbi Moshe Zvi Neria presented an impassioned argument against what the Masada defenders did.  He felt that by using the arguments presented in Elazar's speech, every Jew should kill themselves rather that submit to foreign rule.  There would be no Jews alive today if we followed that path.  He argued that they should've fought to the extent that they could, and when defeated, even when forced to be subjugated to the Romans, at least some would've survived.

Suicide to prevent Forced Conversion 

During the middle ages, especially during the persecution of Jews that occurred during the time of the crusades, there were several episodes where Jewish communities chose mass suicide rather than surrender to the Christian mobs that attacked them.  In many of these cases, they could've saved their lives by converting to Christianity. 

In some cases, the choice of suicide was probably more to save themselves from certain torture and death at the hands of the mob.  One of the most famous mass suicides was the one that occurred in that occured in York England in 1190. The entire Jewish community barricaded themselves within the royal castle to protect themselves from an angry Christian mob.  Although they were threatened with forced baptism or death, most historians agree that the "forced baptism" that the Jews would've suffered was actually death by an angry mob.  The Jews chose mass suicide rather than forced baptism. However, the few who chose not to commit suicide were killed anyway when the mob broke through the barricade.  

However, many cases were not so clear, and many times throughout France and Germany (especially in the Rhineland massacres of 1096 - described graphically in the Tisha B’Av Liturgy Kinah 25)  there were cases where suicide was chosen when a forced baptism might have saved their lives. Many Jews did save themselves that way, though most historians agree that of the people who did submit to forced baptism, the majority of them returned to Judaism. On the other hand, many of those who gave themselves up for forced baptism, ended up getting killed anyway. While we clearly must admire and commemorate their dedication and devotion, we are still allowed to question if indeed their choice was correct. There are no easy answers, we cannot be judges of what people do in such terrible times.

Killing Children to Keep Them from being Forcibly Converted

This topic is very difficult and painful to discuss, but we do know that in some cases, when confronted with the choice of having their children torn away from them and raised as Christian, while they themselves were slaughtered, chose to kill their children and themselves rather than submit to such horror.  In a comment on the verse that started our discussion, Genesis 9:5, the Da'at Zekeinim strongly condemned this practice.  He unequivocally believed that the children should be saved no matter what.  In fact, as we know from the much later horrific persecution of the Holocaust, many children were saved specifically by giving them to Christian families or the church itself.  It seems like people understood that the chance of life for these children was paramount.

Suicide as a response to utter despair

Writing these words is awful, but the Rabbis have always understood that when one commits suicide in a situation of utter despair, that we should not judge such a person unfavorably. The examples of concentration camp inmates who fell against the electrified fence immediately comes to mind.  The most famous example in the Talmud (Gittin 57a) is that of the woman whose seven sons were executed in front of her for refusing to submit to forced idol worship.  She went up to the roof and jumped to her death after this unimaginably horrific event.  The Talmud treats her favorably, and even records a comforting heavenly voice that called out to her when she met her death.  While the Talmud is not condoning or advising what to do in such cases, clearly the Rabbis understood the circumstances.

Suicide in Face of Terminal Illness or Assisted Suicide

I am only mentioning this because I don't want to be criticized for neglecting to discuss this important subject.  There is a lot of literature on this subject, and I need to save it for another post, or maybe even another series of posts.  Please forgive me for punting it to a future date. God-willing, I will get there. 

I hope you learned something from this post, and I will do my best to continue this series on each weekly portion.  I am open to suggestions if any of you have topics you would like me to explore, whether in the comments (preferred), or by email.  Shabbat Shalom