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The Value of Life in the Jewish Tradition

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The Value of Life in the Jewish Tradition sb_06_2009_3:Layout 1 17/05/2011 8.24 Pagina 11 The value of life in the Jewish tradition: Towards understanding Jewish bioethics articolo Michael Barilan דובכ) Introduction: four perspectives on life as a value sense of dignity and self-respect .4(תוירבה he task ahead involves a translation In Judaism, the expression “the sanctity of means the sanctification (םייחה תשודק) ”from one culture to another; from life TJudaism to the academic discipline of life by means of pure and holy lifestyles. of bioethics. Whereas typical translation in- There is no unifying and comprehensive volves the articulation of a symbol from the term addressing the moral status of human original language in the target language, life and its inviolability5. Put in philosophi- talking about the value of life requires a sort cal terms, in Judaism, “the sanctity of life” of “reverse engineering”, that is to say, the entails an “appraisal respect”, whereas no Department of Medical explication of a symbol, or a set of symbols specific legal or theological concept en- Education, Sackler which are taken from the target language compasses ‘recognition respect’ for life as Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel and reconstructing it in the original one. I such6. In the Western traditions, “respect” is will try to do this with caution, being sen- associated with awe from power7. The fun- sitive to all level of meaning found in reli- damental message of Judaism is that authen- gion – from spiritual ideas, through morals, tic power is never within this world, but all the way to specific laws and opinions. beyond it – in God’s hands, and in the hands Such endeavor will require multidisciplinary of His delegates – judges and parents. The effort, drawing on jurisprudence, social his- word “respect” (Kavod) is not found in the tory, moral theory and hermeneutics. Torah in relation to life or any other worldly One may wonder whether the concept of entity8. “the Jewish tradition” is coherent enough. In Judaism, the value of life may be ap- In this article, I draw mainly on rabbinic lit- proached from four different perspectives. erature, ignoring new movements (e.g. Re- The first perspective on life is protective. It form Judaism) and oral traditions and is an attitude of love, or at least compassion practices. that does not allow us to harm life and de- stroy it. Hence, God admonishes the prophet .1(םייח ץע) ”The Torah is called a “tree of life To follow the word of God is “a choice of Jonah, «You have had pity on the gourd -for which you have not labored, nei ,(ןויקיק) .life” for oneself and for one’s offspring2 Such life is the basis and the telos of every- ther made it grow, which came up in night, thing. Because it is said, «he shall live in and perished in a night, and should not I them [the laws of the Torah]», there is a duty spare Nineveh that great city, wherein are to violate almost all the prohibitions in the more than six score thousand persons that Torah for the sake of saving life.The Torah cannot discern their right hand from left desires that people live, before it requires hand, and also much cattle»9. them to fulfill their lives3. Sometimes, Jew- Jonah had no genuine respect for the gourd. ish law prefers omission of good deeds, and He simply needed its shadow. But God ex- even minor evils in order to protect people’s pects man to care for the fate of human and Studia Bioethica - vol. 2 (2009) n. 3 , pp. 11-21 11 sb_06_2009_3:Layout 1 17/05/2011 8.24 Pagina 12 non-human life, regardless of its utility. The fourth perspective on the value of life The second perspective is about applying in Judaism is the most subtle and most re- the value of life to real life situations – when sistant to conceptual analysis. Apparently it is it is permitted at all to harm or destroy life, not normative at all. It is about those things to refrain from saving life and why. In West- that are valuable within worldly life, even ern ethics, this perspective is referred to as though they do not transcend beyond it, and part of practical reason. even though they do not embody any reli- Ironically, the first prohibition on bloodshed gious or moral value, other than apprecia- is articulated in terms of the death penalty. tion of life itself. “Whoso sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the Image of God made he man”.10 The Torah does not tell us Recognition respect for life: its protection directly, “do not kill” the way God pro- scribed eating from the tree of knowledge. Respect for life in the sense of non-harm- From the story on Cain and Abel we learn ing is the essence of Jewish virtue ethics.The that this knowledge is self-evident; every medieval book “Sefer Hahinnukh” (the person must recognize it naturally. Less clear book of formation) writes on the prohibi- is the fate of murderers, tion on futile destruction:16 «The precept is known to be [ תיחשת לב «because they are persons [«Do not destroy In Judaism, the value of endowed with inviolable rooted in teaching our souls to love and ad- life may be approached life who personally vio- here to that which is good and beneficial. If from four different per- lated the inviolable. If the we do so, goodness will cling to us and we spectives first lesson on the value of will avoid all evil things and anything con- human life is the self-ev- cerning destruction. And this is the way of ident character of its non- virtuous people (hassidim). they will not violability, the second let even a mustard seed be lost in the world, lesson is that, paradoxically, the unique re- and they will grieve for any loss or destruc- spect accorded to human life, sometimes en- tion that they see, and if they can save, they tails the taking of life. will save everything from the destroyer, with However, the rabbis have always maintained all their might. This is not true of the evil a very strong presumption against deliber- ones…., who rejoice in the destruction of ate killing. Over and above being a unique the world, and they are the destroyers». moral offense against the Image of God in It follows that the prohibition «Do not de- humans, homicide unravels the very fabrics stroy» is not just one precept among many, of society. Maimonides refers to murderers but a behavior pattern which distinguishes a and worse than good person from a depraved one, a person ,(רמג עשר) ”as “complete evil worshipers of idols and other sinners and who desires good from one who is indiffer- malefactors 1. ent to good or even desires evil. The third perspective relates to the inherent In Jewish moral theology, being a Hassid is value of creating new life. The blessing “be the most sublime virtue on the scale of rab- fertile and increase”1 has been read by the binic virtues17. According to “Sefer hahin- rabbis as fulfillment of the Image of God in cuh”, the chief characteristic of Hassid is man13. The only Jewish benediction invok- respect for life, even in its simplest manifes- ing the creation in the Image of God is said tation (a mustard seed is a synonym in the during the celebration of matrimony. More- Talmud for the most minuscule unit)18. Awe over, the Talmudic sages wrote that celibacy or respect for life is not mentioned, but love «diminishes the icon of God in the world»14. and adherence19. Such words are not to be found in rabbinic The apparent Talmudic source for the com- literature with regard to people who neg- parison of the virtuous (Hassid) with the lect their intellectual or spiritual faculties15. wicked is a passage expounding of scrupu- 12 sb_06_2009_3:Layout 1 17/05/2011 8.24 Pagina 13 lousness not to induce miscarriage20:«Three world23. Although in Jewish law the offense things have been said of nail-parings: he of murder includes ipso facto an offense who buries them is virtuous (hassid); he against the percept of neighborly love, the who burns them is righteous (tzaddik); he prohibition on murder (the sixth com- who throws them away is evil (rasha). Why mandment) is not derived from the neigh- is this? Lest a pregnant woman pass over borly love.24 This underscores a special and them and miscarry». independent regard to life.This independ- Though in several places, the Jewish sages ence is a key reason why one does not find compare a “righteous person” to an “evil a logical systematization of the value of life person,”21 this passage is the only source that relative to other values in Jewish law and juxtaposes the three key terms, “virtuous,” ethics. -thus The Talmud infers the principle of the pri (עשרו קידצ ,דיסח) ”,righteous” and “evil“ establishing the ground for Talmudic virtue macy of saving life over all other values and ethics. Talmudic literature generally indicates laws from an earlier teaching25, «A pregnant that the difference between the virtuous or woman who smelled [food and was seized the righteous and the evildoer is the degree by cravings] on Yom Kippur [a day of fast to which he or she distances oneself from and the holiest day in the Hebrew calendar] destruction. The paradigmatic target of de- [must be] fed until her soul struction is neither art nor rare natural ob- returns to her».
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