JEWS and NON JEWS-----unfair laws?

Achiezer Posted - 24 September 2002 18:57

---

I'm extremely troubled by some things I have learned lately about how we are to deal with these groups of people.

Rambam in Mamrim 3:2 says we can kill an Apikorus without beis din, witnesses, anything--just kill him. He says the same thing about Goyim in Avodas Kochavim 10.

Shulchan Aruch in a few places (YD 158 and CM 425) indicates the only reason we can't kill and can heal them is because of Aivah.

There's no (human-administered) punishment, either, for killing a non-Jew.

Is this morality?

I really hope I'm misunderstanding this.

MODERATOR Posted - 24 September 2002 19:09

---

Apikorsim are a danger to Klall Yisroel; disabusing ourselves of their presence protects their victims. They are predators, and that is by their own choice. Nobody asked them to be Apikorsim.

(Incidentally, you can’t just "kill" them directly - the halachah of moridim velo maalin means indirectly causing their demise).

The Chazon Ish writes that this halachah is not applicable nowadays since we don’t really know how to present Judaism in a way that would make their choice to be apikorsim a capital crime; it’s our fault, partly, that the apikorsim are the way they are, so we can’t kill them (they are never "after tochachah").

The Goyim you are referring to are from the 7 Nations only. You are not allowed to kill Goyim. You’re not allowed to hurt anyone, not even a fly. Those who the Torah specifically singles out as predators are different.

The fact that there is no Bais-Din punishment for something does not mean it is permitted.

Morality must be understood through the eyes of the Torah. Everyone agrees that victims should be protected from predators - the only question is who is whom. The torah decides that, and it knows best.

Remember what happened with Shaul and Agag - King Shaul refused to kill Agag and because of that Haman, a descendent of Agag, almost destroyed all of Klall Yisroel.

Hashem has the ability to protect whoever He wants from death - even an Amaleiki - if Hashem does not want him dead, nobody will have an opportunity to kill him.

If Hashem does want him dead, well, Hashem could kill him with a heart attack or a car accident - and then nobody would question the ethics of it - everyone allows G-d the "right" to end lives when He feels like it; its all "part of the Divine plan."

So when G-d commands a person to kill someone it is no different than when He commands the Angel of Death to slay someone. It means his time is up.

Just as it would be absurd for the Angel of Death to question G-d's judgment when He orders him to terminate the lives of small children, let's say, so too it is absurd for us to question G-d's orders for us to do the same. The Halachah is no less the Ratzon Hashem than His orders to His angels.