Q&A: Moral Dilemmas
Moral Dilemmas
Question
Hello, Rabbi. I’m a 17-year-old boy who really enjoys reading the Rabbi’s writings. More than once I’ve felt that I don’t have enough tools to approach and form an opinion on various complex issues. For example, refusing orders in Gush Katif, releasing a number of terrorists in exchange for redeeming a captive, and many other moral questions. I get confused when I start to delve into these questions, and I can’t understand how one can decide what the right thing to do is. I read your columns about complex thinking, but I still didn’t understand how, in the end, one decides what is right to do. I would be very glad if you could help me and give me some tools. Thank you in advance
Answer
Hello Yochai.
It is very difficult to answer such a general question. Clearly, in the end, when there is a clash between values, there is no algorithm that can decide. But it is important to analyze the problem in order to see whether there really is a conflict, what the possible ways of resolving it are, and what the costs of each of them are. After that, what remains is moral intuition (conscience). About the problem of deciding between values, I wrote in my book A Person Is Like Grass.