[Avodah] torture in halacha???

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Tue May 15 10:11:23 PDT 2012


On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 10:07:28AM -0500, Lisa Liel wrote:
: The discussion is kind of lame if we ignore context. What is the purpose
: of the torture? Is it to get someone to give up trade secrets? Is it to
: get a terrorist to reveal the location of a bomb?

I thought that's the whole topic -- can anyone provide mar'eh meqomos
for meaningfully discussing how much gain justifies how much pain?

I was adding that because halakhah is deontological, we can't assume
some kind of 1:1 ratio. A consequentialist could say that we have to be
preventing at least as much pain. This way the world is a happier place,
net-net. Deontology's required benefit in order to justify causing pain
is typically going to be higher.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 38th day, which is
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