That he should commit suicide? At least according to Thos?
It is better for a man to throw himself into a fiery furnace than to publicly shame his fellow man.
I understood that according to Thos, this is not a sermon/moral idea/inspiration but rather a verse-by-verse halakhic rule and practice.
Now I asked, according to the MKO, is it permissible for a person to commit suicide in order to avoid being publicly ostracized?
If for the sake of another’s shame he is permitted to sacrifice himself, then he is permitted (and perhaps obligated according to Tos) to sacrifice himself to prevent his own shame.
Is this a qu that has flavor?
It may have a point, but it is really not necessary. There is a difference between a prohibition that I do to my friend and what my friend does to himself. He can forgive the sorrow and I cannot forgive him. Beyond that, the Toss view does not necessarily assume that the value of life is less than the value of honor, but rather that the prohibition of bleaching is more severe than the value of life (especially when you subtract from it the defect that bleaching creates in the bleacher).
But these words of the Tos are a thorn in my eyes and should not be ignored. Their words only make sense if you connect them to the foundation of the building, the well-known Tzion regarding the prohibition between a man and his neighbor (like the words of Rashi in 1962 regarding one who saves himself with his neighbor’s money). Although this does not seem to be the intention of the Tos, from there at least one can draw the halachic conclusion that whitewashing justifies sacrificing one’s life. But again, even according to this explanation, it is not because of the severity of the prohibition but because of what I called ‘territorial considerations,’ and therefore there is no room for your argument. It is difficult to elaborate here, and I assume you can find it by searching here on the site.
People die from facial whitening (strokes, heart attacks, etc.).
That's not what Thos writes. Beyond that, people die from a lot of things, that doesn't mean that every minor cause of death should be blamed.
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