The value of human life
Hello Rabbi, I would be happy if you would answer me. The sage’s saying is well known: “He who comes to kill you, kill him first.” But what happens in a situation where a group comes to kill one person, what comes first, the value of your life or the lives of many? And what if the person they come to kill has sinned, and therefore they want to kill him?
thanks! Nadav
I think it is not Chazal but the Rishonim (see, for example, Rashi, Exodus 22:1).
If a group comes to kill me, I am allowed (and I believe I must) kill them all. There is no difference between an individual and many in this matter. After all, if they do not have a persecuting law, then I am not allowed to kill even one because my blood is not redder than their blood. But if they come to kill me, everyone has a persecuting law and I must kill them all.
Even if they want to kill me because I am a sinner, I am allowed to kill them. And evidence for this is from the Psalms that the Gemara says that he would have been permitted to kill Pinchas out of a persecutor’s law (or at least he would not have been liable to death for it). So much so that the Mishnah on Maimonides in the book of Ritsicheha is satisfied with whether when a messenger from the 14th century came as part of his duty to have me executed, is it permissible for me to kill him out of a persecutor’s law (in his conclusion, no). And this is said when the killer is doing something that is permitted to him or even that it is his duty. You are asking about just someone who decided to kill me because I am a sinner. He is a complete persecutor for all intents and purposes, and anyone who sees him should kill him (and not just the persecuted).
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