[Avodah] assisted suicide

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:07:35 +0200
"Michael Makovi" <mikewinddale at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Perhaps King Shaul's fear was not the pain of dying at their hands
> > (i.e. he killed himself to avoid the torture), but rather the
> > desecration of his body and the chillul hashem of it being davka the
> > king (i.e. he killed himself to avoid not the pain itself, but the
> > humiliation after his death)?
> > Mikha'el Makovi
> 
> Indeed, Rabbi Akiva refused to hasten his death and avoid the pain of
> being burnt alive. Apparently pain is not enough?

Do you mean R. Hanina B. Tradyon [Avodah Zarah 18a]?  If so, don't
forget that he allowed (and perhaps we could say encouraged) the
Kalazt'nori to hasten his death.

> Whereas on Masada and during the Crusades and pogroms, Jews committed
> suicide rather than be faced with conversion and such, because dying
> at their hands en masse would be chillul hashem. Likewise when they'll
> desecrate your body.

The issue is quite controversial.  See, e.g., Dr. Hayim
Soloveitchik's "Halakhah, Hermeneutics and Martyrdom in Medieval
Ashkenaz", JQR V94 N1 Winter 2004; I'm actually currently in the middle
of a long blog post on the issue.


> Mikha'el Makovi

Yitzhak
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