[Avodah] assisted suicide

[hlampel at koshernet.com]

Subject: [Avodah] assisted suicide

Gershon Seif <gershonseif at yahoo.com> wrote on Thu, 24
Jan 2008:

> My wife (who is a lobbyist for Agudah) was in
Madison, WI yesterday to join a long list of
people/organizations who came to voice their
objection to a proposed bill to allow physician
assisted suicide.

> Some of the people who spoke in favor of the bill
tried to show how Shimshon would have been in favor
of assisted suicide. 

> Can you all help me out here with some mareh
m'komos about Shimshon and suicide? I know it's
discussed (maybe even a mefurishe Gemara) but I don't
recall where.

> What are the basic chilukim between Shimshon's
situation and a person suffering from a teminal
illness, that would allow him to do what he did, and
yet forbid assisted suicide? 

> My first hunch is that by Shimshon it was only a
grama. And it might even be a safek, whereas what the
assisted suicide wants to allow would be a vadai and
quite direct.<
-------------------

I'm sorry I took so long to reply, but I was looking
for my copy of "Samson's Struggle," by Rabbi Gershom
Weiss (Mesivta of Staten Island), and I finally found
it (while looking for something else, of course). As
I thought, he does address this issue (p. 153).

He relates this to the Shach on Yoreh Deiah siman
157, which states that all authorities permit a
tsaddik to insist on obeying even the lightest 
mitzvah or minhag at the cost of his life if he sees
that his generation is lax in that area, and the
people will thereby learn to love and fear Hashem
with all their hearts.

We can conjecture that Shimshon applied this concept
broadly to permit taking one's own life if this would
result in the avoidance of a great Chillul Hashem.
The pesukim (Shoftim 16:22-23) are clear that the
Philistines viewed their capture and blinding of
Shimshon, the leader of the Jews, through whom Hashem
 performed miracles, as a victory of their gods over
Hashem. (The governers of the Philistines gathered to
offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and to
rejoice. They said: Our god has given Shimshon our
enemy into our hands. And the [other] people saw him
and praised their gods, by saying: Our gods have
given our enemy into our hands... A terrible Chilul
Hashem.)

Rabbi Weiss writes: There was no greater need at that
moment than to sanctify G-d's Name by showing that
idols have no power.

We do not necessarily posken as the
characteristically independent-minded Shimshon did,
but even his application of the Torah's concepts
would not advance approval for physician assisted
suicide on lesser grounds than his.

Zvi Lampel