Moral dilemmas
Hello, Honorable Rabbi. I am a 17-year-old boy who really enjoys reading the Rabbi’s writings. I have often felt that I do not have enough tools to approach and determine my opinion on all kinds of complex issues. For example, refusing an order in Gush Katif, releasing a number of terrorists in exchange for ransoming a prisoner, and many other moral questions. I am embarrassed when I begin to delve into these questions, and I cannot understand how one can decide what is the right thing to do. I have read your columns about complex thinking, but I still do not understand how one ultimately decides what is the right thing to do. I would be very happy if you could help me and give me the tools. Thanks in advance
Hello Yohai.
It is very difficult to answer such a general question. It is clear that in the end, when there is a conflict between values, there is no algorithm that will be able to decide. But it is important to analyze the problem to see whether there is indeed a conflict, what the ways of solving it are, and what the costs of each of them are. After that, what remains is moral intuition (conscience). I wrote about the problem of deciding between values in my book Human as Chaff.
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