Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Chareidi World

23 Tammuz 5759 - July 7 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

HOMEPAGE

 

Sponsored by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

Produced and housed by
Jencom

Opinion & Comment
The Sanctity of Life

Bloodshed, suicide R'l, traffic fatalities, work accidents and all other kinds of tragedies. Why is the number of human deaths on the upswing?

"And you shall appoint for you cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the slayer who kills any person unaware may flee there. And the cities which you shall give shall be six cities for refuge. You shall give three cities on this side of the Jordan and three cities shall you give in the land of Canaan."

Rashi quotes the words of the gemora in Makkos: "Even though there were nine tribes in the land of Canaan and only two and a half tribes across the Jordan, yet the number of cities of refuge was equal on both sides, since in Gilad, across the Jordan, there were many murderers, as it is written, `Gilad, a city of evildoers, filled with blood.'"

The Ramban asks, "But were these cities of refuge not appointed for manslaughterers, that is, those who killed inadvertently, and not premeditatedly? If so, how can one determine that there were many murderers in Gilad merely by the fact of the equal number of cities of refuge? Can incidents of manslaughter be predicted in advance? And if it happened to be true that more deaths by man-accident did occur, does this, then, testify that it was a city of bloodshed?"

The Maharal writes in Gur Arye as follows: "But it seems to me that the one who did kill by accident should have been more circumspect and not come to kill. This is why he is punished by exile, for if not, why indeed should he be forced to leave his home? What has he done to deserve this exile? He should have been careful! He should not have been the cause of another's death! And since there were many murderers in Gilad, no one, not even the best of folk, were careful or took safety precautions to preserve life by not causing accidental killings. It follows that just like there were many planned and intentional murders, so were there many accidental deaths caused by negligence and lack of precaution, a lack of sufficient awareness for the sanctity of life. This is why it was necessary to have a disproportionate number of orei miklot."

A high incidence of fatalities, even by accident, is no mere coincidence. It is no quirk or statistical error. It is a direct and necessary result of a disregard for the sanctity of life and for the divine image reflected in mankind. In a place where murder is rampant and human life has no value, people will not be careful to preserve human life. No one will take the pains to prevent deaths! A frightening thought.

R' S. R. Hirsch zt'l pinpoints the very root of this disregard for human life in his commentary. On the verse, "So you shall not pollute the land in which you are, for blood pollutes the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood which is shed therein . . . And you shall not defile the land which you shall inherit," he writes: "The entire Torah rests upon three foundations: upon justice, chessed within society, and the sanctity of the personal life of the individual. In other words, the entire Torah depends upon the recognition or rejection, the acceptance or denial, of man as a creature of divine origin, formed in the image of G-d. Justice depends upon the recognition of man towards his fellow man as also sharing the divine image. Sanctity and personal morals depends equally upon man's acknowledgement that he bears the divine stamp upon himself.

"But if that image becomes distorted to an animal image, if man is considered a material, physical entity like all other animals in creation, then the driving force in man's life is violence, self interest and gratification of animal lusts. Here there is no place to consider justice, chessed and moral sanctity and in such a state there prevails an atmosphere of defilement in the man's personal world and in his environment, for what is tumah if not a physical subjugation to one's body and a lack of moral freedom which can only lead to violence and corruption.

The public's apathy towards bloodshed is an overt denial of the divine element within man. It loudly declares tumah as a principle in man's personal and national makeup.

Therefore, the Torah addresses the Jewish people in its national homeland and says, "And you shall not defile the land in which you dwell." Do not outright declare through your indifference to the life of man that impurity reigns within your borders. Do not let impurity take hold in the land "in which I dwell in your midst." A society in whose midst Hashem dwells must express the sanctity of man and must declare its recognition that man was created in G- d's image.

*

In our Torah, the code of eternity, there is an explicit address to the phenomenon of the sharp rise in the number of accidental deaths [caused by human negligence]. No difference if the category was changed to traffic fatalities or work accidents resulting in death. The background is identical. The Torah attributes the overt lack of responsibility and consideration towards the sanctity of human life to the terrible murders that are being perpetrated knowingly, by human malicious design. Both are intertwined; both stem from the corrupt root that breeds overt heresy and denial of the divine origin and makeup of man, and in equating of the divine image of man to that of the animal form, a mere biological entity.

In face of the indifference that envelops society, warns the Torah: "Do not declare that the principle of impurity reigns in the land!" Be fully cognizant that man was created in the very image of Hashem!


All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.