Q&A: The Torah’s Laws Toward a Non-Jew or a Resident Alien
The Torah’s Laws Toward a Non-Jew or a Resident Alien
Question
What is the halakhic ruling regarding the following:
If it is a resident alien—someone living in Israel and obligated in the seven commandments—when he is in mortal danger on a weekday, is one obligated to save him from death?
What is the halakhic ruling: if a non-Jew who practices idolatry is in mortal danger on a weekday, is one obligated to save him from death?
Answer
For saving a resident alien, one may desecrate the Sabbath, so certainly on a weekday as well. This is what was written in Peninei Halakha:
Rabbi Rabinovitch, in Melumdei Milchamah, p. 145, cited the view of Nachmanides (Addenda to Positive Commandment 15) that there is a commandment to save a resident alien, and his mortal danger overrides the Sabbath. This is also the view of Tashbetz (Zohar HaRakia, prohibitions 39). According to Maharitz Chayot (Tiferet Yisrael essay), decent non-Jews have the status of a resident alien, even though they associate something else with their worship. Rabbi Mordechai David Plotski, in his book Chemdat Yisrael, wrote that they do not require formal acceptance before a religious court, and therefore today there is a commandment to save them even on the Sabbath. End quote. However, the Vilna Gaon did not accept Nachmanides’ position, and many did not accept the position of Maharitz Chayot. Still, even according to the more lenient views, one must be careful not to apply this reasoning to ordinary non-Jews as a whole, and there were already those who mistakenly included most of the polite German nation in the category of converts and resident aliens. Rather, only regarding a non-Jew who is seriously committed to observing the seven Noahide commandments, out of faith in the Lord, God of Israel, can one invoke the view of Nachmanides and those who agree with him.
In my opinion, the same applies to a non-Jew who practices idolatry, if he conducts himself in a reasonably humane way. See my article, “Is There an ‘Enlightened’ Idolatry?”
Discussion on Answer
Like with the four death penalties of the religious court, which were given as punishment for one who committed certain transgressions requiring one of the four death penalties of the religious court, in order to bring the punished person to his rectification, since through suffering his sins are atoned for.
I didn’t understand a word.
I’m currently dealing with doubts in faith. One of my doubts concerns religion and morality. The question is: what reason underlies the law regarding a non-Jew, that if no one sees it happening (so there is no concern for hostility), it is forbidden to save the non-Jew from death when the rescue involves desecrating the Sabbath—aside from the halakhic rationale that only someone obligated to keep the Sabbath warrants desecrating the Sabbath to save him, whereas for a non-Jew, who does not keep the Sabbath, it is forbidden to desecrate the Sabbath on his behalf. After all, the Torah does not want the destruction of the nations, so why is it forbidden here to save them if the rescue involves desecrating the Sabbath? How can one deal with the moral difficulty here?
How can one believe that the Torah is true, correct, and moral, when there is such a serious moral difficulty here?
Regarding Jewish law and morality, see column 541. There is no difficulty in this at all.
Desecrating the Sabbath is a very severe prohibition. According to one of the explanations, it does not even override the life of a Jew; rather, only because desecrating the Sabbath to save him will enable him to keep many Sabbaths. That does not apply to a non-Jew.
But as I wrote above, this refers only to a non-Jew who does not behave in a humane way. An ordinary non-Jew nowadays one is obligated to desecrate the Sabbath to save.
Is there a commandment to save from mortal danger and keep alive any non-Jew who is decent and observes the seven Noahide commandments, even on a weekday?
Also on the Sabbath. See my article “Is There an Enlightened Idolatry?”
How does one deal with the feeling pounding in the heart when there is a non-Jew who is about to die on the Sabbath and is writhing, and only desecrating the Sabbath will save him, and there is no one watching who could hate me if I do not save him? How does one deal with all this emotional turmoil? I believe the Torah is true; it’s just that here this is something I’m not really managing to accept.
Are you reading what I’m writing? It seems not.
Sorry, I’ll read it now.
What do you mean, “I’ll read it now”? This whole thread is being conducted with you. There’s a conversation here between the two of us, and you’re not reading what I write to you and are posting replies without reading. Are you serious? I’m done with this thread. I won’t answer anymore.
Other questions: regarding a non-Jew who practices idolatry, it says that one neither raises him up nor lowers him down. What reason would the Torah have to determine in advance the death of a non-Jew who practices idolatry—such that when his life is in danger, it is forbidden to save him? Is this a law connected to some kind of spiritual rectification for the non-Jew? If it is not a law connected to any kind of rectification for him, then what is the purpose of causing him to die? After all, the Torah does not want the destruction of the nations, so why here are we supposed to cause him to die? If the Holy One, blessed be He, does not do things for no reason, there must be a reason for this law.