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Self Defense: Difference between revisions
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Can you save yourself with someone else's property? The Talmud records that King David raised this exact question in his war with the Philistines. The Philistines were hiding in Jewish-owned barley fields- and King David wanted to light a fire in order to drive the Philistines out. King David asked the Sages whether he was permitted to burn the field- and they exclaimed that for a private individual it is forbidden to save himself with another person's property. | Can you save yourself with someone else's property? The Talmud records that King David raised this exact question in his war with the Philistines. The Philistines were hiding in Jewish-owned barley fields- and King David wanted to light a fire in order to drive the Philistines out. King David asked the Sages whether he was permitted to burn the field- and they exclaimed that for a private individual it is forbidden to save himself with another person's property. | ||
# The commentators disagree over the extent of this ruling. The Talmud clearly says pekuach nefesh overrides all mitzvot in the Torah with the exception of sexual immorality, Avodah Zara, and murder. Given that, one should be able to perform theft for the purpose of saving their life. Does this ruling imply one | # The commentators disagree over the extent of this ruling. The Talmud clearly says pekuach nefesh overrides all mitzvot in the Torah with the exception of sexual immorality, Avodah Zara, and murder. Given that, one should be able to perform theft for the purpose of saving their life. Does this ruling imply one must die rather than violate theft? | ||
There is | # Most say that one is permitted to steal in order to save your life- but King David 's question was only about if the theft was exempt from damages.<ref>Tosafot Bava Kamma 60b</ref> | ||
# There are some that say that the statement should be taken at face value- theft is prohibited even to save a life.<ref>Rashi Bava Kamma 60b. There are many different approaches to read Rashi's opinion- as noted by Rav Asher Weiss in his piece on this sugya- Minchat Asher Vayikra Siman 66.</ref> | |||
# A person is permitted to save themselves by destroying property that is a rodef to him- or belongs to a rodef. He is exempt from paying liability for this destruction. | |||
# Some say that property is only a rodef if the owner of the property is to blame for the item being dangerous | |||
## For example- a donkey is riding aboard a boat with its owner and other passengers. The donkey suffers a panic attack and begins jumping up and down and causes the boat to begin to sink. The passengers are permitted to throw the donkey off the ship to save their lives. The passengers are exempt for paying damages for the donkey. | |||
## Some say that this is only true if the donkey owner was negligent in bringing the donkey aboard the boat and the donkey was known to be dangerous. If the incident is a freak accident, the passengers who threw the donkey must pay damages. | |||
== Sources == | == Sources == | ||
<references/> | <references/> | ||
