Q&A: Life as Death
Life as Death
Question
I was thinking about something, and I’d be glad to hear the Rabbi’s opinion. If a person did something for which he deserves the death penalty—for example, committed adultery—should he go around knowing that from the Holy One, blessed be He’s perspective he is already dead, and only a technical limitation is the reason he is still walking around in the world? In your opinion, does his life still have significance from the Holy One, blessed be He’s perspective? Does He still want the commandments that he performs? What outlook should he carry with him in the world?
Answer
I have no idea how to answer such a question or what exactly it means. As long as he is alive, he must observe commandments like any other person. Everything else will be clarified for him in the heavenly court.
Discussion on Answer
Simply speaking, no. All the more so from Rabbi Ilai, who ruled that when a person sees that he is about to transgress, he should dress in black, go to a distant place, and do what his heart desires. He did not tell him to kill himself. Even more so according to the Rif and the Rosh in Moed Katan, who wrote that the law does not follow Rabbi Ilai, since we hold that everything is in the hands of Heaven except fear of Heaven. There is no permission to violate any prohibition, and he must try to overcome it.
It seems to me that he meant it from the angle of “be killed rather than transgress.” If a person sees that he is going to commit one of the three severe transgressions, should he kill himself?
Obviously. And that is what I answered.
Granted with sexual prohibitions and idolatry, but what happens in a case where he sees that he is about to kill another person?
There is also a story in the Talmud about people who went and sentenced themselves to the four death penalties in order to repent (and they were granted life in the World to Come). True, it’s a story, but it doesn’t seem to me disconnected from Jewish law.
Michi, you’re contradicting yourself a bit:
Here you wrote (correctly) that he should overcome it, whereas here: https://mikyab.net/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%d7%a1%d7%99%d7%a8%d7%95%d7%a1-%d7%9b%d7%99%d7%9e%d7%99-%d7%9c%d7%a4%d7%93%d7%95%d7%A4%D7%99%D7%9C/
you tended (incorrectly) to view him as under compulsion.
You could also ask this about a situation from the outset.
If a person knows for certain that he will soon violate a law of “be killed rather than transgress” (for example because of sexual orientation), should he prefer suicide?