חדש באתר: מיכי-בוט. עוזר חכם על כתבי הרב מיכאל אברהם.

Fool and rapist

שו”תFool and rapist
asked 4 years ago

Hello.
A person who is a fool, meaning he is unaware of reality, suffers from hallucinations, psychosis, schizophrenia, and the like, imagines all kinds of things, and the like, and is unable to function because of this on a daily basis. And a person who, due to a chronic mental problem, is unable to really control his actions (for example, people who, due to chronic trauma, cannot control their sexual urges, due to rape or sexual assault, or are unable to control their alcohol consumption, and the like, due to the trauma of physical injury and severe physical abuse).
The first type: People with brain and neurological problems who are completely psychotic or completely schizophrenic, as well as people with problems of complete deafness and the like, or those with Down syndrome and Asperger’s. I assume they are completely exempt from the mitzvot.
And the second type, I suppose, depends on the level at which they are “enslaved.” Mentally disabled. And to what extent they are free. (In such cases, of course, it is possible to “get out of it” and continue to live a normal life.)
But my question is this:
The first ones who are completely unaware of reality. One probably cannot expect them to reach an intellectual decision regarding the existence of the Creator. Certainly not to keep the commandments.
And the second. To what extent can one expect a person who in his daily life faces an unbearable challenge of maintaining the most basic ethics (polite relationships, maintaining physical and mental health, dealing with suicidal impulses), in addition to also observing the commandments, and in general, dedicating time to reaching the conclusion that there is a Creator for the world?
Of course, it can be assumed that there were “leniencies” in the court of law above towards those people (as long as they did not commit at least things that the mind is universally inclined to, such as robbery, murder, and the like).
But do they have an obligation at all to worship God? Is there value in their religious acts? After all, for there to actually be religious value, you have to be a wise person who, by virtue of an intellectual or intuitive conclusion, chooses to worship God.
Does a fool, who suffers from a serious mental illness as I described and is completely unaware of reality, yet chooses to keep a commandment because he has heard that it will earn him paradise and eternal life, and he also imagines in his mind the Holy One speaking and imagines pictures about reward and punishment and paradise and the like – is there value in keeping his commandments? (After all, he is not a wise man.)
And another moral but also religious question.
Do such people have the right to have children?
After all, when a person comes into the world, he is automatically obligated to all the obligations and commandments. And when a parent is sick and is unaware of reality, he cannot give the child the tools at all. And he cannot convey to him and inform him of his obligations. And perhaps there is actually the fallacy here of bringing a soul whose potential is to sin.
 
 


Discover more from הרב מיכאל אברהם

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Reply

0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 4 years ago
Every person has an obligation to do the right thing, and of course it depends on the extent to which he can understand what the right thing is. If such a person understands something, he has an obligation to carry it out. If he does not understand, he is a slave. When he is a slave and when not – that will be determined by God, the Almighty. I don’t know how to answer the question about children either. Obviously, if the children are harmed, it makes no sense to bring them into the world. But such people usually have help from their family and environment. We must remember that every person has flaws and disabilities, and most of them affect the children. I don’t deny the doses and I don’t present everything the same, but we must also be careful of the opposite fallacy.

Discover more from הרב מיכאל אברהם

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Reply

Back to top button