Q&A: Universal Morality and Jewish Morality
Universal Morality and Jewish Morality
Question
Hello,
I read that in your view there is no specifically Jewish morality, but for example in the case of “be killed rather than transgress” in the laws of murder, a person has two choices: to be killed or to kill. Jewish law says he should be killed rather than transgress. But according to universal morality, one could say that there is no essential problem with killing in order to save myself.
The Torah has a basic assumption that the very act of killing is immoral, because a person has a soul: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God He made man.”
In addition, there is the assumption that my blood is no redder than that of the person I am supposed to kill—and therefore one should remain passive rather than act.
But if one does not accept the assumption that a person has a soul, then the act of killing itself does not automatically fall under the category of an immoral act, and therefore it can be argued that everything depends on the circumstances. If there is a good enough reason to kill another person (in order to save myself), then there is also no problem with acting proactively in order to save myself, since the argument about “redder blood” could work in the other direction.
From this it follows that one can say there is a Jewish morality and a universal morality. (In your view there is no valid morality without God, but God does not necessarily entail a soul, or the image of God; it could be that we are just highly developed apes.)
Answer
All your assumptions are unfounded, so it is hard for me to see how you are basing any difficulty on them. This is a very forced objection.
1. The principles you mentioned are shared by accepted moral systems as well, just as they are by Jewish law.
2. Even if they were not shared, then that would be Jewish law, not morality, and in any case there still would not be a distinct Jewish morality here, but rather Jewish law that does not correspond to morality (and there are quite a few such cases).
3. Even if there are others who think differently about these principles, they are mistaken. That does not mean there are several different moral systems. Does anyone really imagine claiming that there are no disputes in the realm of morality? And are there no disputes within Jewish law itself?
4. I hope you yourself understood your last sentence. I could not connect two consecutive words there.