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Moral judgment of a person who is being pressured

שו”תCategory: moralMoral judgment of a person who is being pressured
asked 3 months ago

Hello Rabbi Michael, a person who is in a certain complex situation and recognizes that there is a moral action that needs to be taken, and indeed, even from the perspective of the observer from the side, everyone will agree that this is the moral action that needs to be taken. But that person is under certain pressures that affect him (a person in authority, society, etc.), and that person also by nature often succumbs to these types of pressures and does not go “against the flow” – and in the end he acts against the dictates of his conscience. Did that person really do an act of an immoral nature? On the one hand, we can say that he should not have yielded to the pressures that were acting on him and that he actually chose to yield to those pressures rather than act according to his moral dictate, and therefore he actually took an immoral action. On the other hand, he was simply weak and was unable to withstand the pressures, and perhaps we would consider him a rapist. And therefore, just as we would not blame a person who was unable to rescue a baby from a burning building (not because he did not want to, but because it was beyond his human capabilities), so too would we not blame the same person who by nature succumbs to the pressures exerted on him. I hope I phrased the question well, I would appreciate your response.

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מיכי Staff answered 3 months ago

I don’t understand the question. Ask in general terms: What happens if a person fails in an immoral act because he was weak and his instincts overcame him? Is he an immoral person? My answer is: Absolutely yes, but the degree of immorality is a function of the level of pressure and his difficulty in withstanding it.

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