[Avodah] self defense against rape or assault / stand your ground

[Zev Sero]

On 27/08/2013 9:07 AM, M Cohen wrote:
> I was asked if one halachically allowed to kill an attacker to save
> yourself from being raped or beaten? (rape question is where the
> victim is not married and the posukim of na’arah m’orasah don’t
> apply)

In the original case of ba bamachteres, the burglar's immediate intention
is *not* to kill the residents.  All he wants is to steal whatever he can
find in the home, and he would prefer that the residents sleep through the
whole thing and suffer no injury.  So why is one allowed to kill him?
Because he knows that *if* the householder wakes up and discovers him he
is likely to resist, and he is likely to be prepared to anticipate such
resistance with deadly force.  He will have planned this in advance, and
will have provided himself with the means to kill if necessary.  Now of
course this is not true in all cases, but the Torah tells us that it's
common enough that a householder who surprises a burglar is entitled to
*assume* the burglar is now a deadly danger, unless it's clear as day that
he is not.

It seems to me that the same is true of one who sets out to beat or rape
someone; he must have known in advance that his victim is likely to resist,
and to have planned what to do in the case of such resistance.   And in at
least a large number of cases, his plan will be to respond with deadly force,
so one should assume this is the case of any assaulter or rapist unless it's
clear as day that this specific one is not.

In addition to the above, perhaps one can draw an analogy from hilchos
Shabbos, where it's permitted to break Shabbos not only to literally save
ones life but also to save a significant body part (hatzolas eiver).  By
the same principle, it should be permitted to kill someone in order to
prevent him from inflicting sakanas eiver, not just sakanas nefashos.
(Bear in mind that in the ranking of averos, chilul Shabbos is a worse sin
than murder.)

In the case of an attempt to rape an unmarried woman, who is not a niddah,
by a man unrelated to her, perhaps one can draw an analogy from this case
mechon-mamre.org/i/1105.htm#12  Since he is expected to be moser nefesh
rather than commit this avera, perhaps the same reasoning entitles her to
defend herself at the cost of his life.

-- 
Zev Sero               A citizen may not be required to offer a 'good and
zev at sero.name          substantial reason' why he should be permitted to
                        exercise his rights. The right's existence is all
                        the reason he needs.
                            - Judge Benson E. Legg, Woollard v. Sheridan