Why should one be killed for idolatry in rape?

שו”ת › Category: Halacha › Why should one be killed for idolatry in rape?

asked 4 years ago

Rabbi Michael Shalom. It is not entirely clear to me that the law that one should be killed for idolatry in rape (indecent assault and murder are preferable because the severity of the result is greater) and why is it not mentioned in the same halakha that the requirement is that he accept that idol as God, and since his heart is not for idolatry, and certainly there is no court that will bind him if he committed it and was not killed, as Maimonides wrote, and furthermore that even if he committed it out of love or fear, he is exempt until he accepts the will of God, meaning that the act is not considered idolatry if he only does so outwardly but does not intend it internally and does not accept the will of God, then why is the requirement that he be killed and not committed? Visit and get double the reward of Nehorai Yahav

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מיכי Staff answered 4 years ago

I have always wondered about this law. As far as I remember, Nadav Schnerb addressed it in his article (as I believe it is called in Israel, “Reflections on Idolatry”). Perhaps the obligation to kill is even though there is really no complete prohibition of the ez here, as is the law of the ez. Or perhaps it is more severe here than the ez, since this is the very way to violate the ez, and if we have learned that there is a law that one should be killed and not to violate the ez, this would be the only way to fulfill it. And according to this, even if one is not killed for the ez, here one should be killed and not to violate. And yet the question is good. See Nadav.

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אורן replied 4 years ago

I thought of suggesting that even in rape, there is harm in the outcome, because the viewer will think that there is real harm and will perpetuate the phenomenon.

מיכי Staff replied 4 years ago

This is exactly what I argued above. There is an obligation to die, but there is no full-fledged sin here. This is a decree from the Torah. You offer an explanation for the decree, fearing the influence that people will come to worship sin. I agree, I only showed what the source from the Torah is for this decree from the Torah. Without it, there is no place for the law: he shall be killed and he shall not transgress in sin.

dvirlevi311 replied 4 years ago

By the way, for this reason, Maimonides extended in the Epistle to the Hebrews that the rapists who practice idolatry and are not killed are considered righteous!
And supposedly the sin of desecrating God is the greatest of all, and if so, how can they be considered righteous? The excuse is probably that it is not actual idolatry, and according to this, not being killed for it is perhaps not an actual sin.

מיכי replied 4 years ago

See the Torah Scholars, p. 5, 6. It does not mean that.