How the Friend of Maran Zt"l Attempted Suicide: On the Severity of Taking One's Own Life

Unfortunately, it has been somewhat forgotten due to opinions that are not in accordance with the spirit of our holy Torah, as if, Heaven forbid, a person who suffers from significant debts, serious illnesses, or severe mental anguish, and seeks to take his own life, should have his actions justified, suggesting there is no sin in what he did because he chose to end his life due to hardships, and therefore cannot be judged for his actions. All of this contradicts the view of our holy Torah, because according to Torah law, a person's life is in the hands of Hashem, and there is no control over the day of death, as only Hashem determines when a person's time of death will come.

In the Talmud, in Tractate Avodah Zarah (page 18), it is related that the wicked kingdom decreed that Torah should not be taught. The kingdom announced that anyone who would go and teach Torah to others would be put to death by burning. The Torah was being forgotten from Israel, as no one dared to raise their head against the powerful government, which acted with such dictatorship, putting to death anyone who taught Torah.

Only the Tanna Rabbi Chanina ben Teradion paid no heed to the government's words, and would travel from place to place with a Torah scroll in his bosom, teaching Torah to groups, ensuring that Torah would not be forgotten from Israel. Once, Rabbi Chanina ben Teradion and Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma happened to be in the same place. Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma was highly respected even by the government, who honored him greatly. Rabbi Yossi asked Rabbi Chanina, "Tell me, heaven has established this kingdom that has decreed not to study Torah, so how do you put yourself in danger by teaching Torah to Israel?" Rabbi Chanina replied: "It is impossible to leave Israel without Torah scholars to teach them Torah, and 'from heaven they will have mercy'!" Rabbi Yossi said to him: "I am telling you reasonable things and you say to me 'from heaven they will have mercy'? I would be surprised if they don't burn you and your Torah scroll in fire!" In other words, Rabbi Yossi believed that Rabbi Chanina was not acting according to law by endangering himself to teach Torah to Israel.

Rabbi Chanina asked Rabbi Yossi, if the truth is as you say, that I am forbidden to risk myself in order to teach Torah to Israel, then do I have a portion in the World to Come, since one who intentionally loses his life has no portion in the World to Come. Rabbi Chanina responded to him, "May my portion be from your portion and my fate from your fate." (According to the interpretation of Rabbi Shlomo Kluger in the book Avodat Avodah and others). That is, in this case, where Rabbi Chanina acted to save the Jewish people so that Torah would not be forgotten, he was permitted to endanger himself.

Later, the police officers appointed by the wicked kingdom caught Rabbi Chanina and brought him to be burned, and to increase his suffering, they placed water-soaked sponges on his body so that it would take a long time for his soul to depart. The executioner took pity on Rabbi Chanina and said to him, "Rabbi! Why do you torture yourself? Open your mouth and the fire will quickly kill you and take your soul!" Rabbi Chanina replied, "It is better that He who gave it should take it, and I should not harm myself!" All this because it is forbidden for a person to do anything to hasten his departure from the world. The executioner said to Rabbi Chanina, "If so, I will remove the sponges from you, and thus you will not suffer, but I will only do this on condition that you promise me, Rabbi, that I will merit life in the World to Come." Rabbi Chanina said to him, "I promise you," and immediately he was burned along with the Torah scroll.

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From this deed we learn how severe it is for a person to take his own life. To the extent that they said that anyone who takes his own life intentionally has no portion in the World to Come. And although certainly in heaven, when judging a person, they take into account his difficult situation, nevertheless this is not enough to nullify the severity of the prohibition involved, to the extent that our Rabbis said, and all the decisors ruled, that for someone who takes his own life intentionally, we do not mourn for him, do not sit shiva for him, and do not tear our garments for him. All this because of the terrible sin he committed with the departure of his soul. (Indeed, in the words of the decisors, and in the responsa of Maran Zt"l (Yabia Omer parts two and six), it is explained that each case must be judged individually, because sometimes there are grounds to rule that shiva should be observed for someone who took his own life, but still one should know that the act itself is extremely serious).

Similarly, those who give permission to doctors to hasten a patient's death are also considered murderers, because it is forbidden to take any person's life, even if he is full of suffering and pain, and those doctors who hasten a person's death, thinking they are doing a kindness to his soul, do not know that they are considered murderers, and about them it is said the best of physicians is destined for Gehenna, and on the contrary, every hour of a person in this world, even if he is full of suffering, is beneficial in a way that cannot be valued for the atonement of the patient's sins, and from heaven all of a person's life and suffering are allocated, all for the person's benefit to bring him to proper rest for eternity in the world without end. (And regarding the cessation of medical treatment for a terminally ill patient, one should ask a distinguished Torah scholar who is well-versed in these matters).

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And there was an incident, when Maran Zt"l studied at the Porat Yosef Yeshiva, and Maran was about seventeen years old. One of the boys who studied near Maran was unfortunate from birth, as he was fatherless, and his mother would distress him, and he lived in abject poverty, to the extent that he became completely weary of his life, and sought to kill himself. One day, after his mother had provoked him, he resolved to die. What did he do? He bought a deadly poison, and came to the study hall in the yeshiva, asked one of his friends for a glass of water, and immediately drank the poison along with the water. He immediately began to convulse between life and death on the floor of the room. The boys, including Maran Zt"l, hurried in alarm and called one of the great rabbis of the yeshiva, Rabbi Yosef Sharbani Zt"l (the father-in-law of the Gaon Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul Zt"l), and he called more of the yeshiva rabbis, and together they carried the boy outside, and quickly took him to the hospital, where indeed they saved his life. (And Maran Zt"l would recount, "To this day, every time I see I am reminded of that incident").

The boys and the sages of the yeshiva were full of grief over what had happened. But the Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu Lopas Zt"l, who was Maran Zt"l's teacher during those years, gathered the group, and delivered to them words like flames of fire, on the severity of taking one's own life. For at that time, there were others among the yeshiva students who were full of troubles and suffering, as poverty encompassed from within and without, and many were orphans from father or mother. Among other things, Rabbi Eliyahu Lopas read from the book "Minchat Eliyahu," by the Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu HaCohen, who was a pious and kabbalist, author of the book Shevet Mussar, who wrote a terrible incident that occurred in this matter, and these are his words:

A woman from Rabbi Eliyahu HaCohen's city was afflicted with a strange disease; she would suddenly fall to the ground, and appear as if dead, neither hearing nor seeing, and then return to life. All the doctors could not find a cure for her strange illness. Therefore, her family members turned to Rabbi Eliyahu, to come to her house to see if he could help her.

When Rabbi Eliyahu entered the woman's house, the woman immediately fell as if dead on the floor. And a spirit began to speak from her throat, in the voice of a strange man. The spirit opened and said, "Greetings, my lord the Rabbi!" Rabbi Eliyahu asked him, "Who are you, and why do you greet me?" The spirit answered him, "I am so-and-so son of so-and-so, who used to study with you, and we would sit in a certain study hall every day and hear Torah from your mouth." Rabbi Eliyahu asked him, "If so, tell me what you are doing here." The spirit replied, "I was a penitent, and at the time when I was not observant of Torah and mitzvot, I was financially well-established, and afterwards, I repented completely, and I would fulfill everything I heard from the honorable Rabbi, minor as major. And behold, close to the day of my death, I became engaged to a girl from a good family, and at the time of the engagement, I committed to give a certain amount by the wedding day for building the house and the dowry. But since then, I went downhill financially, because from heaven they began to collect from me my debt for the years in which I did not keep Torah and mitzvot, and so I arrived two days before my wedding, without the ability to fulfill my promise. So I sat and was completely ashamed of my situation. I went and sold all the property I had left, and the money I gave to charity to atone for my sins, and afterwards, that man went and killed himself. And left the bride miserable and crying." And indeed Rabbi Eliyahu knew the spirit from when he was alive, and was present himself at the time when they brought that young man for burial, when they buried him far from the other graves in the cemetery, as is the law for one who takes his own life. Rabbi Eliyahu, who was a righteous and exalted kabbalist, knew what actions to take, to benefit the soul of the deceased, and to save him from descending to the pit.

Rabbi Eliyahu concluded, indeed that young man in his life was righteous and upright, and since he repented he was meticulous in mitzvot and engaged in Torah, and with all this, nothing helped him, and since he took his own life, he brought himself to suffering incomparably worse than what he had in this world.

Not so the holy Children of Israel, who know that this world is a corridor leading to the World to Come, and accept judgment upon themselves with love, and in the future Hashem will give them their reward, very much reward.