On morality and law

שו”ת › On morality and law

asked 4 years ago

Peace and blessings
I deal with the subject of bioethics and halakhah, with the order of precedence/prioritization/triage in providing medical care as a mishna topic. In the mishna, we learn about the order of precedence and yet we do not practice accordingly. Do ethical theories (atheistic by definition) influence halakhic judgment?
With great respect

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מיכי Staff answered 4 years ago

Why do you assume that ethical theories are atheistic? Leibowitz claimed that morality is an atheistic category. But there is no basis for this. I think that morality is an extra-halakhic category but not extra-Torah or atheistic. When the Sages determined the order of priorities, they certainly also used ethical theories, even if they did not explicitly formulate this for us. It is true that they also took into account halachic considerations (who is obligated to perform the most mitzvot, for example, and whether the value of life is only being a means to fulfill the mitzvot or not). But all of these are opinions, and as is the case with opinions, they are also saturated with ethical thinking.

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דב replied 4 years ago

If Halacha is theocentric and ethics is anthropocentric - do they both go together?! The order of priorities in the Mishnah is devoid of an ethical basis, while in the modern/post-modern world, with the help of ethical arguments, they have tried to soften the halachic position of the Sages.

הפוסק האחרון replied 4 years ago

This is all nonsense.
It is always implicit in the axioms.
And the number of axioms is as many as the number of passions.

מיכי Staff replied 4 years ago

I don't know what to do with general, undefined, and unreasoned statements like that.