GEN692 No one has the right to volunteer his life. In Jewish law the right to expose oneself to voluntary martyrdom is strictly limited to cases involving either resistance to the three cardinal sins (idolatry, murder and immorality (adultery and incest)) or "the sanctification of God's Name," i.e. to die for one's religious faith. To lay down one's life in any but these rigidly defined cases is regarded as a mortal offense, (Maimonides, Hil. Yesodei ha-Torah, 5:4), certainly when there are no religious considerations involved (See Jakobovits, Jewish Medical Ethics (1962), p. 53). The jurisdiction over life is not man's (except where such a right is expressly conferred by the Creator), and killing oneself by suicide, or allowing oneself to be killed by unauthorized martyrdom, is as much a crime as killing someone else (based on [this verse] and commentaries).

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GEN694 Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, in his commentary to the Torah, states that in a time of legal war against Israel, many of the concepts governing Judaism are changed, and it may be appropriate to kill people (even innocents) when it is not normally permitted to do so.  He says that in the time of war, the rules are different and that innocent people may be killed if necessary to defeat the enemy (this verse, with Ha’amek Davar commentary).   That is why the verses in Ecclesiastes say in one verse that “there is an appropriate time (and reaction) for war,” and “an appropriate time (and reaction) to hate. Ecclesiastes 3:8.  AMJV 67

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GEN693 Given the Judaic belief in Creation, and that the Torah is the expression of God’s will, the rights one has to one’s own body are dictated by the Torah and, in Orthodox Judaism, by halakhah, the body of laws developed by Torah scholars throughout Jewish history, including the Talmud, the Shulchan Arukh (codified laws), and responsa.  The scriptural source for rules on the care of one’s body is [this verse] “Your blood, which belongs to your souls, I will demand.” Although this appears to prohibit suicide, the Talmud (Baba Kamma 90b) extends this to self-injury, also referring to the verses that consider a Nazirite to be sinful because he has inflicted deprivation (of wine) on himself. Another source is the biblical prohibition of wanton destruction of any object, based on the verse prohibiting destruction of a fruit-bearing tree (Deuteronomy 20:19). The specific prohibition of self-mutilation, “You shall not cut yourselves and you shall not make a bald spot between your eyes for a dead person” (Deuteronomy 14:1) refers to the pagan ritual of mourning. That the Torah requires a person to preserve one's health is further derived from the verse, “But you shall greatly beware for your souls” (Deuteronomy 4:15). Although there are differences of opinion in the Talmud, halachah states that self-injury is forbidden and that caring for one's health is obligatory, although this may be of rabbinical rather than scriptural origin. An additional prohibition of self-endangerment may be derived from the commandment requiring a person to make a fence around his roof to prevent someone from falling (Deuteronomy 22:8). Based on this verse, Maimonides writes, “Many things are forbidden by the Sages because they are dangerous to life. If one disregards any of these, and says, ‘If I want to put myself in danger, what concern is it of others?’ or ‘I am not particular about such things,’ disciplinary flogging is inflicted upon him.” He then goes on to cite a number of practices that the Talmud considers dangerous (Hilkhot Rotze’ach 11:4). Not only is one prohibited from endangering oneself, but this is even more stringent than ritual prohibitions. Rabbi Moses Isserles, in his glossary on the Shulchan Arukh (Yoreh De‘ah 116:5), writes, “One should avoid all things that might lead to danger, because a danger to life is stricter than a (ritual) prohibition. One should be more concerned about a possible danger to life than a possible (ritual) prohibition.” Given this attitude, an immediate application of this is that cigarette smoking is forbidden by the Torah. There is no longer any question about the toxicity of cigarette smoking. It has been established that smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer and chronic obstructive lung disease. It is also a significant risk factor in coronary artery disease and cancer of the larynx. There are more fetal complications if the mother smokes during pregnancy. A number of authoritative rabbis have formally ruled that smoking constitutes a violation of Torah law. Whereas mutilation of one's body is prohibited, surgery that is beneficial to one's health is not only permissible but is also required by halakhah, as indicated by Maimonides’ statement that “Inasmuch as a healthy and whole body is the way of God, because it is impossible to understand or know anything about God if one is ill, therefore, a person must avoid things that are injurious to the body and follow practices that are healthy and wholesome.” Where the surgery corrects a disease, it is obligatory. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein ruled that surgery for cosmetic purposes permissible if there is adequate indication that it is of psychological value (Iggrot Moshe, Hoshen Mishpat 66). Whereas surgery to treat a disease is permissible and obligatory, the question arises whether one may injure his body by donating an organ. If one has no rights over one's body, may one subject oneself to surgery to help another person? The ruling is that the Torah requirement to save another person's life overrides the restriction on injuring one's body. Just as one has no unrestricted ownership over one's body during lifetime, neither does the body belong to anyone other than God after death. Is it, then, permissible to mutilate the body by doing an autopsy? Again, the Torah requirement to save another person's life overrides the restriction on injuring one's body. The prevailing opinion is that if it is believed that the findings of the autopsy may be immediately beneficial to a patient, it may be performed. (by Abraham J. Twerski)

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GEN695 The body belongs to God. For Judaism, God, as creator of the world, owns everything in it, including our bodies. See, for example, Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 10:14; and Psalms 24:1. See also Genesis 14:19, 22, where the Hebrew word for “creator” (koneh) also means “possessor,” and where “heaven and earth” is a merism for those and everything in between, and Psalms 104:24, where the same word is used with the same meaning. The following verses have the same theme, although not quite as explicitly or as expansively: Exodus 20:11; Leviticus 25:23,42,55; and Deuteronomy 4:35,39,32:6.  God loans our bodies to us for the duration of our lives, and we return them to God when we die. Consequently, neither men nor women have the right to govern their bodies as they will; God, as creator and owner, asserts the right to restrict how we use our bodies in ways articulated in Jewish law. Some of God’s rules require us to take reasonable care of our bodies, just as we would be obliged to protect and clean an apartment that we rent. Rules of good hygiene, sleep, exercise, and diet in Jewish sources are, therefore, not just words to the wise designed for our comfort and longevity, as they are in American thinking; they are, rather, commandments that we owe God. Bathing, for example, is a commandment according to Hillel (Leviticus Rabbah 34:3). Maimonides summarized and codified the rules requiring proper care of the body in M.T. Laws of Ethics (De’ot), chaps 3-5. He spells out there in remarkable clarity that the purpose of these positive duties to maintain health is not to feel good and live a long life but rather to have a healthy body so that one can then serve God. So for example, American ideology and law would permit me to eat a half gallon of ice cream every night of the week; I might be stupid to do so because I will look and feel terrible and endanger my life, but that is my choice. In Jewish law, though, I do not have that right, because I have a fiduciary duty to take care of my body since it belongs to God. Just as we are commanded to maintain good health, so we are obligated to avoid danger and injury. B. Shabbat 32a; B. Bava Kamma 15b, 809a, 91b; M.T. Laws of Murder 11:4-5; S.A. Yoreh De’ah 116:5 gloss; S.A. Hoshen Mishpat 427:8-10.  Indeed, Jewish law views endangering one’s health as worse than violating a ritual prohibition. B. Hullin 10a; S.A. Orah Hayyim 173:2; S.A. Yoreh De’ah 116:5 gloss. Conservative, Reform, and some Orthodox authorities have thus prohibited smoking as an unacceptable risk to our God-owned bodies. Bleich (1977a); Freehof (1977), chap. 11; and Rabbinical Assembly (1983), 182.  Judaism also teaches that human beings do not have the right to commit suicide, for doing so obliterates something that belongs not to us but to God. Genesis 9:5; M. Semahot 2:2; B. Bava Kamma 91b; Genesis Rabbah 34:19. (states that the ban against suicide includes not only cases where blood was shed but also self-inflicted death through strangulation and the like); M.T. Laws of Murder 2:3; M.T. Laws of Injury and Damage 5:1; S.A. Yoreh De’ah 345:1-3. In contrast, the laws of most American states permit suicide (although most prohibit aiding and abetting a suicide). See Savage (1996).  DORFFLOV 21

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GEN696 The citation of the Ten Commandments and their authority by ancient figures with varying forms and additions also caused later rabbinic and Christian biblical commentators to find new and more extensive meanings for the Decalogue. One example of this is the “appended” interpretation of the Sixth Commandment to prohibit suicide. Suicide is an issue in the ethical thought of philosophers and theologians throughout the ages. Immanuel Kant sums up his argumentation on the subject in the following fashion: “But suicide is not inadmissible and abominable because God has forbidden it; God has forbidden it because it is abominable in that it degrades man’s inner worth below that of the animal creation. Moral philosophers must, therefore, first and foremost show that suicide is abominable.” The question is, where exactly does God forbid suicide in the Bible? The Bible records examples of “apparent” suicides of important, paradigmatic figures without explicit condemnation. [Among examples cited by author: Saul, Samson, Zimri – AJL] The distinction between suicide and martyrdom is elaborated by medieval biblical commentators and Theologians alike regarding some of the suicides but this distinction is apparently post-biblical. In Judaism: Midrash Genesis Rabbah 34:19; Midrash Lamentations Rabbati 1:53. In the law corpuses of the Pentateuch, suicide is not explicitly forbidden. It appears that the whole question of suicide was not an issue in the biblical period which required specific legislation or prohibition. While probably not normative, it certainly was not criminal. The need for the prohibition of suicide appears to be a reaction to attitudes encountered in the post-Hebrew Bible/Greco-Roman society [It may represent either an ideological or a practical polemic against suicides which occurred during the Greco-Roman period. The rabbis specifically may have been reacting to the practical circumstances of suicides which occurred during and after the Destruction of the Second Temple or the Bar Kokhba rebellion, for example. The fact that earlier suicides were not clearly condemned or specific prohibitions raised may indicate that it only became an issue as a result of the philosophical issues associated with it during the Greco-Roman period.] which in some cases encourage suicide as normative. In Plato’s Phaedo 61b-62d suicide is clearly unlawful. Unfortunately, Socrates’ own “apparent” suicide left room for later Greco-Roman speculation as to the nature of unlawful suicide. Diogenes Laertius, already in the fourth century BCE recounted some Stoic doctrines concerning the permissibility of suicide in various circumstances. Diogenes Laertius 7.130; Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, ed. J. von Arnim III.757. Seneca, and the later Stoic thinkers took this doctrine of rational suicide and transformed it from permissibility to “near” obligation. So we find in his Epistula Morales 104:21: “If you want to get rid of vice, you must retire from places where there are examples of vice. Cross over to the better people. Live with the Catos, with Laelius and Tubero. If you like to live with Greeks, join Socrates and Zeno. Socrates will teach you to die if necessity arrives, Zeno before it arises.” The “rational” suicide and the development of the normative nature of suicide in Greco–Roman society perhaps motivated a reinvestigation of the Bible for ethical justification in condemning them. In rabbinic sources, the biblical prohibition is derived from a specific reading of the Hebrew in [this verse]: “But for your life-blood will I require a reckoning” The rabbinic interpretation of Genesis Rabbah states: “A person is not to harm himself. There is a tradition concerning the scriptural verse, “For your life-blood too (Hebrew: ach) I will require a reckoning.’ Rabbi Eleazer taught the following interpretation, ‘From you I will require a reckoning for your own life-blood.” [interpreting the Hebrew word: ach] Unfortunately, the same interpretation could not easily be used by those who based themselves upon the Greek Septuagint reading of this passage. In the Septuagint, the phrasing and syntax is read differently, giving us the following translation of [this verse]: ”For your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of all wild beasts…”. In other rabbinic and Christian sources, however, apparently a rather clever reading of the Sixth Commandment provided the authority for the ban on suicide. It appears that they may have read the words: Lo Tirtzah (“Thou shall not murder”) in the following manner: The T in Tirtzah is dotted for one or two grammatical reasons: a) T can be dotted when it is the first letter of a word or syllable—as is this case here—or b) to indicate the absence of a letter (dropped for a number of different reasons). Using the dotting as a sign of the absence of a letter, the biblical commentator argued that this word reflects the Hebrew reflexive construction of the same person and number (which required only the addition of another T or better the “missing”/”dropped” letter T). Accordingly, these biblical interpreters read the Sixth Commandment as: Lo TiT’ratzeah, “Thou shall not murder oneself.” Thus, according to the rabbis, suicide is a biblical prohibition and no less one of the Ten Commandments. [Another interpretation of this appears to be derived from the “unique” but ancient reading preserved in Onqelos Targum to Exodus 20:13. There it states: “Do not kill any person” implying that the prohibition extends to all persons (even apparently oneself. See: The Targum Onqelos to Exodus, trans. with appartus and notes by B. Grossfeld, (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1988) pp. 56-57 especially note #8 on p. 57.]

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GEN697 Jewish sources specify four duties with regard to physical and mental health: To adopt helpful practices and avoid harmful ones; to seek to heal those who are sick; to balance at the same time health care costs with those of other communal needs; and to visit the sick. Some of these apply to society as a whole, and others apply to individuals. The Duty to Maintain Health. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Before we address our duty to attend to the sick, it is important to note that we have a prior duty to try and avoid illness in the first place. In modern society, people think that they should engage in healthy habits for all kinds of pragmatic reasons. Proper diet, exercise, hygiene, and sleep are, for Americans in particular, ways to feel good, look good, be popular, avoid illness, get a good job, and live a long life. If follows that if I do not want any or all of these things, I have the perfect right to do whatever I want, as long as I do not directly injure others. I may not smoke indoors (at least in certain places) because we now know that secondhand smoke harms others, but I may smoke outdoors. I may not drink and drive, but as long as I do not get behind the wheel of a car, I may get drunk whenever I want. I may eat a half-gallon of ice cream every night of the week even if that will mean that I will weigh five hundred pounds in no time. It is my body, and I may do whatever I want with it. In stark contrast, the Jewish tradition makes it a duty to take care of our bodies, whether we want to or not. That is, in part, based on the Jewish presumption that God owns our bodies as well as everything else on earth: “Mark, the heavens to their uttermost reaches belong to the Lord your God, the earth and all that is on it!” Deuteronomy 10:14 As Owner of our bodies, God can and does insist that we take care of them. It is as if you were renting an apartment: you have fair use of the apartment during your lease, but you may not destroy or damage it, because it is not yours. Similarly, while suicide is not punished through depriving your heirs of your inheritance or in any other way in any of the fifty states in the United States (although assisted suicide is punishable everywhere but in Oregon), in Jewish law we do not have the right to commit suicide or assist in one. [this verse]. DORFFWITO 144-6

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GEN700 The rules and regulations governing suicide are discussed in at least two tractates of the Talmud.  In Baba Kamma 61a is found the following: “No Halakhah may be quoted in the name of one who surrenders himself to meet death for the words of the Torah.” Further in the same tractate (91b) we find: “…who is the Tanna that maintains that a man may not injure himself? It could hardly be said that he was the Tanna of the teaching: ‘And surely your own blood of your souls will I require’ [this verse] which Rabbi Eleazar interpreted to mean that I will require your blood if shed by the hands of yourselves (i.e., suicide), for murder is perhaps different …” Rashi interprets this scriptural verse to mean that even though one strangles oneself so that no blood flows, still I will require it. The major Talmudic discussion of rules governing suicide is found in chapter 2 of Semahot. Here we are told that we do not occupy ourselves at all with the funeral rites of someone who committed suicide willfully. Rabbi Ishmael said: “We exclaim over him “Alas for a lost (life). Alas for a lost (life).” Rabbi Akiva said to him: Leave him unmourned; speak neither well nor ill of him.” Further “we do not rend garments for him, nor bare the shoulder (as signs of mourning), or deliver a memorial address over him. We do, however, stand in a row for him (at the cemetery after the funeral to offer condolences) and recite the mourner’s benediction for him because this is respectful for the living (relatives). The general rule is that we occupy ourselves with anything that is intended as a matter of honor for the living …” ROSNER 323-4

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GEN698 Judaism teaches that man has duties to himself as well as to others. Man is directed to provide for his own needs, to keep himself in good health physically and mentally, and to seek medical aid when ill. He is also forbidden to harm himself and certainly to take his own life. [this verse]. But man is also commanded to love his fellow man as himself, to respect his person and property, to aid him in need, and to rescue him when he is in danger. This last duty is based upon the command, “Thou shalt not stand idly by the blood of thy fellow,” Leviticus 19:16, Sanhedrin 73a which according to the Talmud means that if you see someone drowning or being attacked by wild beasts or by robbers, you are obliged to go to his rescue. Whatever effort is needed to rescue the individual, including the hiring of help, is included in the obligation. There are some authorities who rule that even if a person has to give away all of his fortune to save the life of another, he is obliged to do so. If his efforts succeed, he may, of course, claim compensation from the person he saved.  See the very comprehensive discussion by Rabbi B. Wein, “Aspects of the Prohibition of Standing Idly by the Blood of Thy Neighbor,” Hadarom 33 (Nisan 5731).  SPERO 218

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GEN699 R. Elazar interpreted: “I shall require your blood from your lives.”  From here we derive that one is not permitted to cause himself injury.  Baba Kamma 91b TEMIMAH-GEN 47

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GEN702 Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria says: Whoever does not attempt to be fruitful and multiply, it is as if he had spilled blood and annihilated the likeness, as it says: “He who spills the blood of a person by a person shall his blood be shed for He made humanity in the image of God. Be fruitful and multiply … (this verse and Genesis 9:7). [Tosefta, Yevamot 8:5, with variant of Ben Azzai for R. Elazar.]  COMMENT: This midrash follows the principle-prooftext form and uses the same verse cited above [See “image” BANAL 150]. Here, Rabbi Elazar draws the conclusion that whoever refuses to reproduce has in effect “killed” the unborn. He does this by reading Genesis 9:6 in the context of the next verse which deals with the divine command to reproduce.  It is the juxtaposition of the injunction against killing, with its reference to image, to the command to reproduce that leads him to his conclusion.  BANAL 151

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